People fed up with BJP’s communal tactics | Interview A.K Antony

Senior Congress leader, former chief minister of Kerala and former Defence minister, A.K Antony speaks to M.P Suryadas (Mathrubhumi) about the party's stance among other things.

Congress has been out of power at the centre for ten consecutive years now. Is there an expectation of a comeback this election?

It is not easy for the Congress to make a solo comeback in national politics. Congress has this conviction more than anyone else. That is why the Congress is contesting in the least number of seats for the first time in the history of elections. A seat agreement was reached with the constituent parties of the INDIA bloc. Congress is contesting 300 seats. The problem is not how many seats we contest, but how many seats the BJP will be defeated. Congress has compromised as much as possible in the 28-party INDIA bloc. At the time when the elections were announced, the BJP was very confident. Now the wind has started to change. The last two times, BJP used caste and religion and divided the people. Now the people are fed up. Religion and caste do not matter in the market this time. So the situation is changing day by day in favour of Congress.

The Prime Minister says that even if Rahul contests in Wayanad, he may have to change constituencies. The CPM also says that he should not have contested in Kerala? 

Rahul is the sitting MP who won from Wayanad with a record majority. If the CPM had any allegiance to the INDIA bloc, they should not have fielded a candidate in Wayanad. Because he was the MP of Wayanad since last time, when the INDIA alliance did not exist. Didn’t the prime minister’s speech affect his own credibility? If the prime minister goes to North India and says that Rahul will lose in Wayanad, will anyone believe it? Be it CPM, Congress, BJP or those who no longer have a party, would they believe that Rahul will lose in Wayanad? Let the prime minister judge his own words.

As someone who managed the defence department for eight years during the UPA government, how would you evaluate the last ten years?

It was Nehru who laid the foundation for the scientific, technological, agricultural and defence achievements seen in India today. India has become a major economic power in the light of liberalisation during the ten years of the UPA rule. The Manmohan government decided that it is not enough to increase the wealth, the benefit of this should be brought to the common people through welfare work. Waiver of farmers loans, implementation of food security scheme and introduction of employment guarantee scheme are part of this policy. 

Waiver of farmers loans, implementation of food security scheme and introduction of employment guarantee scheme are part of this policy. After the Chinese attack, the Congress government became cautious in the defence sector. It was during the Congress rule that the DRDO was instituted, Ordnance factories upgraded and the Pokhran experiment was conducted. India has not lost any of the subsequent wars. When there is a problem at the border, not even an inch of land was given away during the UPA government. It also became the fourth largest military power in the world during UPA time. India has military cooperation with 58 countries. The BJP government is not able to handle diplomatic issues with maturity and foresight as the UPA government did. The Israel- Palestine issue is the biggest example of this. India had diplomatic relations with Israel during the Congress rule but we never turned our backs to Palestine. India was the first in the world to recognize Yasser Arafat. India has always been with Palestine. When the Israel-Palestine war broke out, India unilaterally`sided with Israel. It is a failure of Indian diplomacy. After that, they tried to shift their stance a little but the diplomacy failed miserably. The BJP does not have the diplomatic maturity that the UPA does.

Do you think it was a mistake not to bring up Rahul Gandhi as a cabinet minister in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet?

Manmohan Singh asked Rahul to accept the department of his choice and become a cabinet member. But Rahul was not ready to accept this. He is not power hungry. He resigned from the AICC presidency. Rahul is a self-emerging leader.

This time, the prime minister spent a lot of time campaigning in Kerala with the claim of winning two-digit seats.

Seeing the recent visit of the prime minister to Kerala, it seems that Modi is not getting proper information about the situation in Kerala. Why did he actually come to Kerala so many times? 2019 was a golden time for the BJP when there was an emotional atmosphere over the Sabarimala issue. The Kerala government’s stupidity added to this. The chief minister’s statement that the court order will be implemented whoever opposes it created an emotional atmosphere in the Hindu community. Still they could not win any seats. So I can say with certainty that the BJP will not win any seats here. There is no competition for sixteen seats here. In the rest, the contest is between the Congress and the CPM. 

Pinarayi Vijayan himself agrees that he criticises Rahul Gandhi the most. What is the reason for this?

In the past, Kerala chief ministers used to go to other states to campaign. CPM is contesting in two seats in Tamil Nadu. There they are campaigning with pictures of Rahul and Stalin. In Andhra also, CPM is highlighting Rahul. Without the Congress and Rahul, they cannot contest even in Maharashtra and Rajasthan. It is the Congress party that is trying hard to help the CPM state secretary win in West Bengal. What will Pinarayi Vijayan say by going to these places? That is why he is not going anywhere. Here, he is trying to manipulate the people by speaking against Rahul.

In the case of Kerala, the Congress claims that the ED investigation is ineffective.

What happened in Karuvannur was the biggest theft in the cooperative sector. The CMRL investigation also began months ago. Let the investigation be conducted legally, let the law follow the law.

Congress alleges that the situation has worsened due to the continuous rule

The biggest danger for Kerala is the consecutive rule. This consecutive term led to SFI trial courts coming up on campuses. Even the moral and internal strength of the CPM collapsed due to this reason.

Many Congress leaders consider Padmaja Venugopal and Anil Antony leaving the party as a betrayal.

It is a tragedy that K Karunakaran’s daughter left the Congress. For six months, I could not come to terms with the fact that my son had joined the BJP. It was a shock. Time heals everything. Politics and family are separate. Ideologically I am most opposed to the BJP, the CPM comes only second.

Did they leave due to lack of consideration in the Congress party?

It is a closed chapter. No point in saying anything more. Both of them went to the BJP. There is no need for further discussion.

The DA dues for government employees are still pending. The LDF says that they had to face bigger issues during the Antony government. 

It is after the LDF that put Kerala in such a financial crisis, was voted out of power that I took up the administration. When I demanded that I, as the chief minister, required a flight ticket to go to Delhi to discuss the financial problems, I was denied the same citing arrears. Even the coffee house that used to deliver coffee to the Secretariat stopped the delivery. The government had lost all credibility. A high-level team was formed under the leadership of Finance Minister Sankaranarayanan. Ministers and the government first cut unnecessary expenses and tightened their grip. A meeting of service organisations was called and the surrender of leave was postponed for two months. The employees went on strike. Soon the situation improved and everything went back to normalcy. How much has the DA arrears increased now? There is no protest. There is no limit on extravagance.