CPI will always play role of 'corrective force': Rajendran

CPI, a key partner in the ruling Left front in Kerala that has voiced its criticism on various issues, today said it will always be a "corrective force" and has not taken the role of opposition.
"The CPI will always play the role of a corrective force. We have not taken up the role of opposition," party state secretary Kanam Rajendran said referring to CPI(M) politburo member Prakash Karat's recent remark that the CPI should not be seen as "a constituent of the opposition front."
On the party's stand on encroachments in Idukki, he said it was in consonance with that of the government.

"CPI's stand on encroachments in Idukki is not that of the opposition, but that of the LDF government," Rajendran told reporters here.
The remarks comes a day after CPI(M) activists had allegedly tried to prevent revenue officials from evicting encroachments on government land at Devikulam in Idukki district after reportedly threatening them with dire consequences.
"CPI and CPI(M) do not have separate stands on the issue of eviction of encroachers from Munnar and other areas in Idukki." Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has made it clear in the Assembly that stringent action would be taken against all encroachers. That is the LDF's stand, Rajendran said.

"However, a minister and an CPI(M) MLA have been making statements contrary to this and the CPI will bring this to the Chief Minister's notice," he said.

Encroachments in Idukki district, especially in the tourist hill station of Munnar, came into focus recently after the state Assembly Committee recommended steps to remove encroachments.
CPI had voiced its opinion against the "encounter killing" of two Maoists in Nilambur and the recent alleged police high handedness against the family of a late engineering student, Jishnu Pranoy. The party had also criticised the government's reluctance to release cabinet information under the RTI Act, he said.

Criticising the chief minister for justifying the police action against the mother and other relatives of Jishnu, who allegedly committed suicide, he said Vijayan had asked what the family had achieved by their agitation.
This was akin to the manner in which the rich ask their workers when they launch agitations, he said.
On the CPI'sstand on the way Jishnu's relatives were treated by police, Karat had recently said, "CPI, a constituent of ruling coalition should not be seen as a constituent of the opposition front."
On the appointment of Ramon Srivastava as adviser to the state police on strategic matters, Rajendran said the Chief Minister has the right to appoint an adviser.

"But when we hear of Srivastava's name, the first name that comes to mind is that of late chief minister K Karunakaran, with whom the former senior IPS officer was reportedly close," he said.
Rajendran also criticised E P Jayarajan, who had quit as industries minister following allegations of nepotism when he appointed two of his relatives in top positions in state PSUs and Power Minister M M Mani.