THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the controversies surrounding the Justice Sivarajan Commission which probed the solar case, the factionalism in Congress's A group is also coming out of the shadows. Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who is also a former Home Minister, completely distanced himself from Group A when it was decided to appoint Justice Sivarajan as the Judicial Commission. With the last assembly elections, Thiruvanchoor had completely been in favor of the current official side.
The solar controversy heated up again when former minister C Divakaran, who is also a CPI leader, said that Justice Sivarajan took five crores and wrote a weak report and former DGP A Hemachandran revealed that the commission was only interested in masala stories. Thiruvanchoor had made it public the other day that he had opposed the appointment of Justice Sivarajan as the Judicial Commission in the cabinet meeting.
When Chief Minister Oommen Chandy morally decided to quit the Home Department, Thiruvanchoor, his loyalist, was made the Home Minister. However, with the arrest of Chief Minister's PA Tenny Joppen by the police in the solar controversy, Thiruvanchoor fell away from Oommen Chandy's circle of trust. It is said in Group A that Oommen Chandy was forced to ignore Thiruvanchoor and take decisions on his own when Jopan was arrested when Oommen Chandy was not there. Later, when it came to the appointment of the Judicial Commission, Thiruvanchoor was ignored and the opinion of the then minister K Babu, another confidant of Oommen Chandy, was considered. Justice Sivarajan's name was suggested by Babu.
Thiruvanchoor's innocence has now been revealed as A Hemachandran, who was the head of the investigating team, revealed that Joppen's arrest was not with Thiruvanchoor's knowledge. While Oommen Chandy's confidant KC Joseph expressed dismay at the fact that none of the Congress leaders took up the issue and moved politically against the Left Front, Thiruvanchoor dismissed that too.
At that time, there was a high criticism that the interventions of the Sivarajan Commission paved the way for Oommen Chandy's and the Congress's backlash in the solar case.