I am not returning to Congress now: Karunakaran

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Aug 2: Former Kerala Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader K Karunakaran today said the situation was not favourable at present for his return to the Congress Party, which he left four years ago following differences with the Central leadership.

"Is it a wrong thing," he retorted to mediapersons in reply to a question if he had any plan to go back to the Congress.

He, however, told the mediapersons at a "Face-to-Face", organised by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists, that he did not have any immediate plan to join the fold of the party which he had served in different capacities for well over six decades.

In this context, Mr Karunakaran said, "what is needed is an active leadership in the Congress...a leadership that can take along the grassroot level workers...a leadership which can spell out an action plan for the cadres...there must be a situation favourable for such a leadership to emerge." Asked if the NCP would join either of the Congress-led UDF or the Marxist-led LDF in Kerala, he said, "We are ready to join either front by keeping our party's own identity."

On the announcement by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan that he would undertake a fast in front of the official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in protest against the delay in sanctioning flood relief assistance, the 89-year-old leader said, "Kerala does not need a Chief Minister who wants to sit on Satyagraha...We want a Chief Minister like M Karunanidhi of Tamil Nadu who easily gets whatever he wants from the Centre." Coming down heavily on the Marxist-led LDF government in Kerala over its education policy, he said the ruling coalition had proved that it could not resolve the crisis in the education sector through dialogues.

Recalling the ''grandiose role'' played by the Christian missionaries in promoting education in the state, Mr Karunakaran asked the government to work towards protecting the interests of the institutions run by minorities.

"The grievances of the minorities should be redressed...It is not a gratis... It is their right," he said.

Reminding the CPI(M) that its wrong education policy had led to the first "Liberation Struggle" against the first Communist government in Kerala in 1959, he said the present government was also creating a situation which may lead to second Liberation struggle in 2007.

"If the state loses its credibility in the field of education, it may prove detrimental to its economy," he said.


UNI

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