THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When the US political counsellor and staff of US consulate evaluated Kerala’s political and economic scene in conversations with political and business leaders a couple of years back, senior CPM leaders reportedly pleaded for assistance in attracting US private sector investment to Kerala.A diplomatic cable sent by a top US diplomat to the US State Department and accessed by Express through WikiLeaks (166399, unclassified, dated August 2008), states that the openness with which CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and then ministers Thomas Isaac and M A Baby expressed their desire for US investment to American diplomats was startling. It goes on to say that the meeting demonstrated confidence that their reformist faction had the upper hand over the more dogmatic wing of the Kerala CPM led by the then Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan.Revealing the details about a closed-door meeting the American political counsellor had with top CPM leaders and ministers, the American diplomat says, “CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan opened the meeting, which was held in his office underneath framed pictures of Stalin and Lenin, by telling the political counsellor that “we need your assistance” in drawing US investment to the state. Vijayan, who is a member of the CPM politburo, added that “we have no problems with American companies, no hesitation at all.” He explained the change in the Kerala CPM’s position on investment by saying that “the government does not have enough money to adequately develop the state. We need money from the private sector.”
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