THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Opposition’s calculated move to keep alive the R Balakrishna Pillai’s ‘phone call’ issue and thereby establish that he is remaining in the private hospital bed on the basis of false claims and cooked up medical reports to somehow spend his ongoing one-year jail term awarded by the Supreme Court in the Edamalayar case, is bound to influence the course of the UDF Government in many ways.With arch foe and Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan taking the lead for Pillai bashing and announcing that the issue, including the flouting of jail rules and undue pampering by the State Government, would be brought to the notice of the Supreme Court has given an added dimension to the case.Even as a Jail Department order was issued on Thursday stating that four more days would be added to Pillai’s already reduced jail term, it could not pre-empt the Opposition’s onslaught on the government.The concerted move was on the basis of substantiated and admitted charges that Pillai had spoken to a channel reporter over his mobile phone, while he was being pilloried from many quarters for his suspected role in the recent brutal attack on R Krishnakumar, a teacher of the school owned by him at Valakom.That many calls were regularly made from Pillai’s phone to the Chief Minister’s office staff was also raised for adding ammunition to the Opposition’s strategy to derive maximum political mileage. The additional days of sentence for violating prison rules not withstanding, attempts to dilute the SC verdict in any pretext, if found true, may pose serious problems not only to Pillai but the UDF as a whole in political terms. That the Opposition has distanced itself from the ongoing probe against the teacher and laid emphasis on the political aspect of the whole development is a key point. “There will not be any let up in the Opposition campaign. The Edamalayar case was an extraordinary one and the final verdict of the highest court of the land was passed after a long trial. Balakrishna Pillai was awarded a token sentence considering his old age. But he is not ready to accept it mentally and follows an immature stance,’’ said former Law Minister and CPM leader M Vijayakumar MLA. “The UDF leadership and the Chief Minister are also dancing to Pillai’s tunes even while they claim that they had high regards for the courts. They are not ready to obey the court verdict in Pillai’s case. It is against the tradition of the state. It cannot be allowed,’’ Vijayakumar told Express. The LDF has announced a series of agitations from next week on the issue. Interestingly, the CPM official leadership is solidly behind Achuthanandan in the legal crusade against Pillai, which is unusual given the undercurrents and factionalism in the party, especially when the organisational elections are fast approaching.
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