What has happened to V. D. Satheeshan, all of a sudden? Wasn't he, for the past five years, the voracious reader, the warrior for democracy, the champion of media freedom, transparency and ethical politics? Wasn't he the picture-perfect antithesis of Pinarayi Vijayan, the unsmiling dark lord of authoritarianism, arrogance and hubris?

Yet, barely four months after taking over as Chief Minister, even his staunch supporters see in Satheesan the mirror image of his own nemesis, the former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. As Pinarayi was once mocked as “Modi in Mundu”, some now call Satheesan “Pinarayi in Khadar”.

Some of these comparisons may be exaggerated. But such questions are increasingly being heard across Kerala with each passing day since the former Opposition leader became Chief Minister.

Why do the Chief Minister and the UDF government keep finding themselves constantly in self-created soups, even before settling down in office? Since this defies common sense, one may even be tempted to presume that Keralam's 13th Chief Minister is unwittingly strengthening “triskaidekaphobia”- the term denoting the superstitious fear of the number 13.

Every democratic government enjoys a honeymoon period with the people, when both sides see only the best in each other. Very few governments, however, in Kerala or elsewhere in the democratic world, may have experienced a honeymoon as short-lived as that of the present UDF government. Indeed, the portents turned dark even before the government was born, or before the euphoria over the massive electoral triumph had subsided. The ugly fracas among the three senior-most leaders for the Chief Minister’s post delayed the government formation and squandered much of the huge goodwill that had brought the UDF to power after an unprecedented decade in the wilderness.

Thanks to popular support and the media, Satheeshan deservedly won the CM’s seat, despite KC Venugopal and Ramesh Chennithala enjoying stronger support within the Congress High Command's reckoning and among the newly elected party legislators. Thereafter it looked like smooth sailing for Satheesan. Unlike in the past when UDF partners wrangled over ministerial berths and portfolios, Satheesan completed the ministry formation exercise in a jiffy.

But things soon turned sour, with the government surprising everyone by committing one blunder after another. The appointment of Power Minister Sunny Joseph’s brother-in-law as his additional secretary, and of the lawyer who had represented an accused in the Sabarimala gold theft case as the state’s Devaswom Special Pleader, outraged even hardcore UDF supporters,........

© Mathrubhumi English