Shortly after the Kerala Assembly election results were declared, KC Venugopal’s supporters in the Congress began calling journalists, claiming the general secretary in-charge (organisation) would soon be sworn in as chief minister, citing the overwhelming numbers in his favour. However, Venugopal did not anticipate the sustained pressure mounted by the public and Kerala’s press, which eventually forced the ‘high command’ to appoint VD Satheesan instead.
The former Leader of Opposition had come to carry the aspirations of many Malayalis on his shoulders, positioning himself as the antithesis of his predecessor, Pinarayi Vijayan.
Needless to say, a lot of hopes were riding on the ‘Pookie’ chief minister, who was expected to lead the state out of its Communist shackles and unleash its animal spirits. However, after the initial euphoria, Satheesan is gradually betraying his authoritarian streak, to the point where he is stubbornly refusing to come clean on pressing questions.
It all started with a chartered flight trip to Karnataka in May, just before he was sworn in as chief minister, which raised questions over who had arranged and paid for it. The controversy was eventually let go by the press. Satheesan has always been a darling of Kerala’s media, and they were collectively relieved that he had reinstated the tradition of the chief minister briefing the press and taking questions after Wednesday Cabinet meetings.
When it came to the initial controversies — ranging from the transfer of stake in the Vizhinjam transshipment terminal to the U-turns on liquor policy and PM SHRI — the ‘honeymoon phase’ ensured that Satheesan got some leeway from the media. However, Satheesan’s strategy of withholding information at these briefings soon became a pattern, and so did his apparent pitting of media outlets against each other.
It also helped Satheesan that Kerala’s visual media had lately been engaging in an unhealthy viewership tussle, often leaving them polarised on party lines. And thus Satheesan seemed to get the better of the press during almost every media interaction.
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A PR disaster
This month, another imbroglio related to a chartered flight emerged. Satheesan had availed of a chartered aircraft for an official visit to disaster-hit areas in Malappuram, but no information was forthcoming from his office on how it was funded. The press held their horses, assuming he would answer their questions adequately at his next interaction with them.
Moreover, roughly half of his cabinet ministers were on (or had undertaken) foreign trips and jaunts even before they had settled down in their offices.
All ears were on Satheesan at his last cabinet briefing.
What ensued on 23 September was a disaster in public relations and a disorderly mess, as the chief minister failed to give convincing answers on almost everything. When asked about his Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) cabinet colleague KM Shaji using an industrialist friend’s luxury SUV as his official vehicle without the necessary clearance, Satheesan went on to justify him, uncharacteristically.
It appeared evident that Satheesan had been forced to take that line on account of his own staunch refusal to come clean on the private benefactor who footed the bill for his chartered aircraft. Satheesan not only refused to divulge who exactly sponsored his flight, but also defiantly announced that he would continue the practice to save money for the exchequer.
In the end, the CM ended the presser in a huff, seeming to run away from the probing questions.
Wither propriety?
Lack of propriety aside, Satheesan did not seem to realise that accepting such a benefit put him in contravention of the code of conduct for the office he held, notably Section 3.1: “No Minister should – personally, or through a member of his family, accept contribution for any purpose, whether political, charitable or otherwise”, as well as Sections 4.1(a) and 6.
Whether Satheesan receiving favours from private benefactors also attracts Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, is a matter of debate. But it definitely puts Satheesan at odds with the oath he took to assume office, enshrined in the Third Schedule under Article 164(3) of the Constitution of India, where he swore to discharge his duties “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will”.
It was also plainly evident to the public, used to Satheesan’s public posturing, that he was not being transparent, something he had kept demanding from Pinarayi Vijayan as LoP. Known for quoting from religious texts of all three major communities in the state, Satheesan perhaps could have contemplated the ‘Dharmic’ angle, or righteousness, of his course before brazening it out and making a mockery of his public image.
Quid pro quo
There is no such thing as a free lunch, as the saying goes. Satheesan alluded to a Malayali businessman friend — possibly referring to Congress colleague and Karnataka minister KJ George, whose family owns Kelachandra Aviation — as a means of deflecting criticism.
However, it was only a matter of time before more information came out in the public domain. An invoice accessed by the media showed that Kelachandra Aviation had raised a bill of nearly Rs 20 lakh to Chipsan Aviation, which operated the aircraft.
Now, Chipsan Aviation had already been at the centre of controversy in Kerala over its exorbitant contract with the Vijayan government to lease a helicopter to the state. The same company was also negotiating for another deal with the Satheesan government to renew its contract, although under new terms.
And so, prima facie, the arrangement raised an obvious question: whether Chipsan was seeking to curry Satheesan’s favour for a contract by offering the ride.
Vijayan redux
Congress leaders have raised the possibility of someone else (based on Satheesan’s Malayali benefactor angle) footing the bill despite the invoice being raised to Chipsan Aviation, but the chief minister’s office has not given any clarification on that front. And the media’s attempts to seek clarification from Satheesan only compounded matters, with the chief minister publicly asking the press to back away during an outreach campaign in Idukki.
The media were similarly thwarted from approaching the chief minister at the Sahitya Akademi Hall in Thrissur and again at the Gokulam Convention Centre in Kochi, with the police asking journalists covering the events to remain at a distance. That left many wondering whether the ghost of Pinarayi Vijayan had come to possess Satheesan, now that he was making an adversary of the press he once took delight in speaking to.
On 28 September, Kerala’s dailies reported that the ADGP Intelligence had instructed district police chiefs to provide more security cover to the chief minister. It is a far cry from Satheesan’s initial promise to make do with only a pilot and escort vehicle in his convoy, going back to the tradition of Kerala chief ministers prior to Vijayan.
Playing to the gallery
Reminiscent of AK Antony’s austerity measures after assuming the chief minister’s mantle in 2001, Satheesan had pledged to not waste public money. He advocated for the continuation of official vehicles previously used by ministers in the Vijayan cabinet.
However, the likes of KM Shaji are publicly rebelling against it — he claimed the 2017 model Innova Crysta allotted to him is perpetually at risk of breakdown, prompting him to use a Range Rover belonging to his friend. It would appear that such visible austerity measures were merely an attempt to play to the gallery, going by the latest developments.
Satheesan is not only undermining the self-respect of Malayalis when he accepts the largesse of his well-wishers to save public money, it also does not sit well with his leader Rahul Gandhi’s charge against crony capitalists.
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Will Satheesan course-correct?
Malayalis have entrusted Satheesan with the state coffers with the confidence that he would utilise taxpayers’ money judiciously. That includes money he can legitimately avail of for discharging his official responsibilities.
The public may not mind Satheesan taking U-turns to aid privatisation despite being an avowed Nehruvian socialist, given how the state is in dire need of capital investment, but they would not take kindly to him becoming a mirror image of Pinarayi Vijayan.
Congress has had several instances of chief ministers not completing their terms in Kerala, with R Shankar, K Karunakaran and AK Antony among them.
It would be in Satheesan’s interest not to alienate the press so early into his tenure, with his rivals in the party looking for chinks in his armour and waiting for the opportune moment to pounce on him.
Anand Kochukudy is a senior journalist based in Kerala. He tweets @TheKochukudy. Views are personal.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)