KPCC to seek reconciliation in MLA Ramya Haridas fracas row, warns workers against public feuds

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph on Friday signalled that the party would spare the rod and strike a middle ground in the late-night fracas involving Congress legislator Remya Haridas and two other party workers at a house in Chirayinkeezhu last week.

Mr Joseph told reporters in Kochi that he had received the report of the inquiry commission constituted to investigate the scuffle, which went viral and caused significant reputational damage to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government. “Congress workers should conduct themselves thoughtfully. Reconciliation is the KPCC’s watchword. The party will solve all outstanding differences amicably,” he said.

Former KPCC president M.M. Hassan, who headed the commission, was not immediately available for comment.

However, KPCC office-bearers privy to the inquiry said the commission had faulted the parties involved in the conflict, which provided sensational grist to Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] social media handles to troll the Congress and the government and also diverted media attention from the UDF government’s flagship ‘Re-Imagining Kerala’ retreat at the Indian Institute of Management-Kozhikode (IIM-K).

They said the commission had reportedly recommended that party legislators uphold the responsibilities and etiquette that come with parliamentary privilege. KPCC sources said the commission also cautioned party workers against settling internal disputes in person or in public.

Appropriate party forum

Instead, they said, the commission emphasised that workers air their grievances at the appropriate party forum, primarily the District Congress Committee, rather than acting on their own, individually or in groups, lest such incidents undermine party unity and distort the KPCC’s political and organisational messaging.

A Congress insider said the commission also highlighted the need for the KPCC to put workers who breach party discipline on strict notice to dissuade the rank-and-file from construing any hesitancy from the leadership as an open charter for public feuding, while allowing sufficient latitude for expressing contrition and correcting course.

They noted that Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan had recently accepted the apology of a Thiruvananthapuram District Congress Committee (DCC) member, Anil Kumar, aka Chenthi Anil, whom the KPCC had expelled for blocking his motorcade.

Earlier, the KPCC had reinstated former KPCC secretary P. Balakrishnan and other party workers who were suspended for “sending a wrong signal” to the rank-and-file by participating in the wedding of a Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader implicated in the murder of Congress workers Kripesh and Sarath Lal at Periye in Kasargode in 2019.

Notably, the KPCC also reportedly let off the DCC general secretary, Thiruvananthapuram, A. Prijin Babu, with a warning after the party issued him a show-cause notice for creating an impression of dissension in the top leadership over the Chief Minister post by paying for newspaper advertorials vouching for Ramesh Chennithala for the top post in the wake of the UDF’s victory.

In July, the KPCC had warned party spokespersons against thrashing out intra-party disputes on television talk shows. However, it stopped short of taking any disciplinary action.