Coca-Cola in a quagmire as CPI(M), Janata Dal lock horns

Jays Jacob
26 April 2003

Kochi: The multinational Coca-Cola is caught in a political crossfire between the Communist Party of Indian (Marxist) and the Janata Dal in Chittur near Palakkad.

In this political one-upmanship, the real victims are the more than 5,000 people directly and indirectly employed by the firm and those running 33,000 outlets of the soft drink giant in the Kerala.

The grama panchayat, ruled by the Janata Dal, a constituent of the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF), has been forced to cancel the licence given to the factory at Plachimada in 1999 on the plea that the extraction of excess groundwater by the firm has resulted in water shortage in the area, affecting the local people. But the company has challenged the action of the local body and obtained a status quo order from the Kerala High Court.

Janata Dal leaders say the main reason for their taking such an extreme step is the campaign being run against the party secretary-general, K Krishnankutty, who holds the Dal fort in Chittur. The CPI(M) and the Janata Dal have been engaged in a fight for political space in Chittur for the last many years. Recent clashes have resulted in the death of a Janata Dal worker and the relations between the two coalition partners are so bad that they do not see eye to eye.

But the real fight started after the last assembly elections when Krishnankutty lost the election to K Achuthan of the Congress. The Janata Dal felt that the CPI(M) did not help it in the election campaign and that some of its votes were cast on the other side.

The Perumatty grama panchayat president, A Krishnan of the Janata Dal, says the panchayat gave the licence to the soft drink major when the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Company was brought to the state by the then LDF government. The panchayat is getting Rs 9.5 lakh a year as professional and building tax from the company. More than 500 people of this most backward panchayat are employed in the company.