TENUOUS TRUCE
It was a picture-perfect occasion, Kerala’s warring Congress leaders— PCC chief K. Sudhakaran, leader of the opposition V.D. Satheeshan and MPs Shashi Tharoor and K. Muraleedharan among others—lining up at the border in Parassala to receive the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra as it entered the state on September 11. But the truce lasted just hours. Sudhakaran and Tharoor waited in vain for Rahul to arrive to inaugurate a Congress freedom fighter’s memorial at NIMS Medicity. The Gandhi scion couldn’t make it due to security reasons and both leaders were livid with the yatra organisers for their “insensitivity”. Muraleedharan, meanwhile, boycotted a function for Rahul at Nemom, after he was denied entry to the dais. Whether the Congress yatra unites India or not, it has clearly failed to unite partymen in Kerala.