Menon steers clear of controversies

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 20. The former Finance Minister, Mr. T. Sivadasa Menon, is at the receiving end of flak from all sides but he seems to have chosen not to give back as good as he gets. Despite provocation from all sides, including from his own party, Mr. Menon is careful not to join issue with his detractors.

``If somebody gets happiness blaming me for the financial crisis and the LDF's defeat, I don't intend to deny them that pleasure,'' the former Finance Minister said at a `Meet-the- Press' programme organised by the Kesari Memorial Journalists' Trust here today.

Mr. Menon refused to join issue with the former Education Minister, Mr. P. J. Joseph, who has publicly held his handling of the State's finances primarily responsible for the LDF's defeat or the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan, who publicly criticised the liquor policy of the LDF Government as hasty and inopportune.

He would only say that if he said anything in response to what others said about him, it would be violative of the oath of office and secrecy which he took while assuming office as Minister, undemocratic and politically immoral. ``I think democratic propriety demands silence on such issues in public forums,'' he said. He claimed that Mr. Achuthanandan's criticism about the liquor policy was not his own but of the CPI(M) and said the decision to form toddy workers' cooperatives was taken on the basis of recommendations contained in the interim report of an expert committee on toddy industry.

The committee, he said, had held wide-ranging discussions before making the recommendations. The basic idea behind the cooperatives was that being a traditional industry, toddy should not be used for minting money and that if at all money were to be made, it could be done by bringing retail sale of Indian Made Foreign Liquor into the public sector, he said.

Asked to comment on reports that he was responsible for the low victory margin of Mr. Achuthanandan in Malampuzha, Mr. Menon said no such criticism had been raised in any of the party forums.

To a question why Mr. Achuthanandan's margin had fallen, he replied, ``Because people did not vote,'' and added that it was a general trend in this election all over Kerala.In Varkala, where Mr. Ali Hassan had won with a margin of 26,000 votes, the CPI(M) had lost, he pointed out.

Commenting on Mr. Achuthanandan's statement that the officials of the Finance Department had manipulated things towards the final days of the LDF Government to make things worse for the Front, Mr. Menon said he had never felt so. ``If anything did go wrong, Sivadasa Menon is responsible for it,'' he said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : White Paper: all steps will not be taken
           immediately
Next     : State Planning Board reconstituted