When power turns: Chandy’s solar controversy and Vijayan’s ED confrontation now

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 20 (SocialNews.XYZ) Politics has a long memory, and in Kerala, the political wheel appears to have come almost full circle.

For nearly a decade, the solar scam followed Oommen Chandy like a political shadow.

Beginning in 2014, when Chandy was Chief Minister, allegations raised by solar case accused Saritha S. Nair became one of the most potent political weapons in the hands of the CPI(M) and its campaign machinery.

Sensational allegations and insinuations, amplified relentlessly through social media networks sympathetic to the Left, kept the controversy alive and steadily eroded the political space around Chandy.

Chandy, however, chose to face the storm. As Chief Minister, he appeared before the judicial commission appointed by his own government and gave evidence, subjecting himself to questioning at a time when the allegations had reached their political peak.

The solar issue, meanwhile, remained a potent political weapon even after the LDF swept to power in 2016.

After Pinarayi Vijayan assumed office as Chief Minister, his government moved to bring the Justice G. Sivarajan Commission report before the Assembly.

On November 9, 2017, Vijayan convened a special one-day session of the House to table and discuss the report, which contained serious allegations against Chandy and his government.

The controversy was thereby given a fresh lease of political life under the new LDF regime, keeping the former Chief Minister under intense pressure even after he had left office.

The issue was again deployed during the 2021 Assembly election, when the solar controversy continued to figure prominently in the campaign against Chandy and Congress. Vijayan returned to power with a second consecutive term.

But time eventually delivered a different verdict.

As Chandy's health deteriorated, the allegations that had followed him for years came under renewed scrutiny.

He was eventually cleared of the charges, leaving behind a deeply uncomfortable question over the political cost he had paid before his name was finally cleared.

When Chandy died, Kerala witnessed an extraordinary public outpouring.

The scale of his final farewell, cutting across political and social boundaries, was perhaps the most powerful reminder that the political narrative constructed around him had not erased the public affection he commanded.

Today, the political script appears to have acquired an ironic twist.

Vijayan's Left has suffered a historic electoral setback, while the ED investigation involving his daughter Veena Vijayan has opened an increasingly difficult chapter.

The agency's latest findings and its description of certain transactions as allegedly involving hawala have put the political defence surrounding the case under renewed pressure.

Vijayan has repeatedly maintained that he has nothing to fear and that his hands are clean.

But as fresh developments emerge and earlier narratives come under scrutiny, the credibility of that defence is itself becoming a subject of political debate.

The CPI(M) state leadership is now preparing to take the ED head-on politically, seeking to turn the investigation into a larger political battle against the central agency.

The question now is whether Vijayan will emerge from the controversy as unscathed as Chandy eventually did after years of political and legal scrutiny.

The answer could have consequences far beyond the fate of one political family.

If Vijayan's defence fails to withstand the investigation and the allegations gain legal traction, the CPI(M) in Kerala could face a political crisis of a magnitude far greater than the setback it suffered at the hustings.

The political wheel, after all, may have turned, but whether it completes its full circle remains to be seen.

Source: IANS