When show-off boomerangs

It was not so long when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan remarked on the absurd trend of people’s representatives revealing corruption stories through media portals. The CM advised cadres to abstain from such demeanours. The chief minister in recent times had to reiterate the advice after MLA Anvar went rogue with a spree of explosive revelations.

“Such corruption details should be informed to the party first. Even anyone can approach me to reveal such details. It is how things work within LDF. Anvar might not know because he comes from a congress background.” This was CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s reply to Anvar MLA.

Anvar may not be an ideal LDF candidate and may be missing certain traits unique within red cadres. But PP Divya is a staunch CPM member. She cared less to abide by the party decree and the worst she did was breach numero uno CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s dictum.

Political leaders can go uninvited, out of commitment to any event and so did Divya to ADM Naveen Babu’s send-off function. The least anybody expected was Divya to speak ill of Naveen Babu but to everybody’s surprise, she stooped low to give a swansong dressing down to the ADM. Divya taunted and insulted ADM Naveen Babu and warned about more details emerging in two days. In an appalling show of haughtiness, Divya walked away after delivering the opprobrium amidst stunning silence from the officials, especially a shattered Naveen Babu.

If she had given any consideration to CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s words, Divya would have restricted her condescending show-off to approach the party with an official complaint. The Kannur district Panchayat president never wanted to miss her last attempt to take a shot at the ADM and she did so in a despotic style ensuring that the ADM won’t be a concern again.

It is unlikely for a people’s representative to insult an official in public light. And it is some arrogance to humiliate an official at his send-off ceremony. Colleagues and family members are denying all rumours about Naveen Babu being corrupt. For them, he is an ideal officer with no black marks throughout his career. Even if the rumours were true, there would have been better options to take the official to task rather than indulging in a vain show-off attempt eyeing political brownies.

Naveen Babu indeed lacks the guts to take up all rumours in his stride. He was not a man of courage it seems. Not only Naveen, but many among us are also vulnerable to such public insults. However, what aches is the fact that he was a caring father to two young girls. The daughters would never get their father back and worse, some quarters will continue to picture him as corrupt.

It is for the party to decide on how to tame their young ‘firebrands’. Recently, some of the young stalwarts have been going rogue, making caustic remarks with impunity, caring less for the party warnings. It is time to draw the line or else, more such despotic dames would get the cojones to wreak havoc on public lives.