Gaushala at Kerala CM’s residence raises political fumes

NEW DELHI: Folklore has it that a peasant woman in Kerala sold her only possession, a calf, and contributed the money to the then undivided Communist Party, which was pooling funds for its Malayalam mouthpiece, Deshabhimani. No one knows for sure whether the farm worker, Palona Mathu, belonged to the Malabar region or central Kerala, where the Communist Party had its roots in the late 1940s and 1950s. But the legend of Mathu is still shared in the homes of party workers and sympathisers across the state.
After the split in the Communist Party in 1964, CPM acquired Deshabhimani and the publication has survived over the years. However, ever since Mathu, the party was never known for any association with the cow till the present Left Front government under Pinarayi Vijayan decided to renovate the cowshed at Cliff House, the official residence of the Chief Minister, at a cost of Rs 43 lakh.
Set on four and a half acres of land, Cliff House is located at Nanthancode in the heart of the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram. It has been the official residence of the majority of Chief Ministers ever since the formation of the first government, a communist one led by E.M.S. Namboodiripad, in Kerala in 1957.
Though the decision to upgrade the existing cowshed was taken some time ago, many thought that the government would not go ahead with the proposal in the face of widespread criticism from both ordinary citizens and financial experts. But now that the renovation work has formally started, it has come under public scrutiny once again. “It is more a political decision than meets the eye,” says K.C. Umesh Babu, one-time party member and now a virulent critic of the Chief Minister and his “right-wing” pro-crony capital policies.
Pointing out that gaushalas have come up in large numbers across the country, especially in metropolitan cities, since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, Umesh Babu feels that the Left Front is, by and large, trying to cosy up to the Central government. This was seen some time back when the Chief Minister dispatched his chief secretary to study the Gujarat model of administration after a meeting with Prime Minister Modi who had reportedly advised Vijayan to do so.
CPM in Kerala had in the past thrown out one of its two-time MPs from the party for praising Modi’s Gujarat model.
The party had also launched an agitation across the state when a minister in the Congress-led UDF government of Oommen Chandy called on the then Gujarat Chief Minister Modi in Ahmedabad while on a visit to the IIM there.
The present Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan was the then Kerala party secretary of the CPM. He had personally led the agitation from the front.
Umesh Babu cites the present government’s penchant for mega projects such as the SilverLine high speed rail link despite large scale opposition from affected citizens and environmentalists alike, political decisions like invoking of UAPA against two students and the cold-blooded killing of so called Naxalites in the state to be in the good books of the Central government.
Opposition likens Vijayan’s total control over both the party and the government to that of Modi, some even rate him a step ahead in his enthusiasm in implementing Centre’s policies.
Pinarayi is referred to by detractors as “Munduudutha Modi” (Dhoti-clad Modi). Interestingly, ever since he came to power in 2016, Vijayan, unlike Mamata or Stalin, has never even once named PM Modi while criticising the Central government. And the Centre on its part has deferred the hearing of SNC Lavalin pay off case in which Pinarayi Vijayan is one of the accused for a record 32 times.
“The cowshed will set a bad precedent. What if another Chief Minister doesn’t want to maintain it? Will he or she then demolish it? After all, isn’t the public paying for its maintenance?” asks Umesh Babu.
A year back, the Left Front had come under attack from the opposition parties for its decision to give a facelift to Cliff House, a royal era building constructed 79 years ago, at a cost of Rs 1 crore, and that too at a time when the government was advocating financial austerity asking people to tighten their belts. That did not deter the government from going ahead with the furbishing work. Same is the case with the cowshed, which is being built in an area of about 800 sq ft. The foundation for the building is for a multi-storied one. At present the single storied building will have a separate restroom for workers and another for storing cattle feed and other tools. The best attraction of the new gaushala will be piped music for the cows!
Critics, while questioning the need for such a shed for the cows inside Cliff House, point out that with the same amount the government could have built houses for at least eight families under the LIFE Mission, a housing project for the poor which has now run into a controversy with the CBI looking into alleged financial irregularities. Or, as some others point out, at least the government could have provided shelters to some of the worst affected by sea erosion due to the construction of a port by a leading industrial group.
The protest at Vizhinjam is one of the most important struggles by the people of Kerala against big capital after the Mavoor Gwalior Rayons agitation of the 1970s.
The State Dairy Development department extends financial assistance to farmers to construct cowsheds under the Milk Shed Development scheme. The scheme intends to tap the dairying potential of 10 selected panchayats and transform them into models for increasing milk production. This more or less has remained only on paper. If a farmer incurs Rs 1 lakh for the construction of a cowshed, the department will extend Rs 50,000. The Animal Husbandry Department is supposed to provide Rs 25,000 to farmers to build cowsheds. However, it is said that the department has discontinued the scheme. So the question raised is how necessary is the government decision to go ahead with the construction of the cowshed.
K.T. Rammohan, former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, M.G. University, Kerala, points out, “Kings consider it auspicious to see cows in the morning.” Perhaps democratically elected communist leaders in new India too would like to see a cow at the stroke of dawn.