Lead, unkindly light

The thumping victory for the Congress party in Kerala’s local elections hasn’t stopped the infighting in the state party unit — even on the smallest of issues. This time it was over the lighting of a ceremonial lamp. It all began when Kollam District Congress Committee (DCC) president and former minister Kadavoor Shivadasan lit a traditional lamp at a memorial function for Indira Gandhi on October 31 at the local party office. It turned out that Shivadasan lit the lamp around the same time as a similar ceremony organised by the Indian National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) was in progress in an adjacent hall. This so provoked Intuc leaders that a furious Prathapa Varma Thampan, an executive member of the local party, stormed in, extinguished the lamp and relit it amid hectic arguments by both sides. The anti-Thampan section has complained that the incident insulted the former prime minister’s memory. Either way, it is considered important enough for the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president to seek an explanation from Thampan.