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All of Kerala wants to meet PM

The prime minister's camp at Kumarakom is confused, with people from various walks of life clamouring for an audience with Atal Bihari Vajpayee before he ends his annual vacation on January 1.

Though the prime minister launched a series of meetings with eminent personalities from the state on his third day's stay on Thursday, advisors have not been able to finalise a list of heads of various religions and communities, who have expressed their desire to meet him.

The problem is acute in the case of Christians, with heads of various denominations vying with each other for individual parleys with the prime minister. Though heads of various denominations have signed a joint memorandum highlighting various issues pertaining to minorities under an initiative launched by Syro Malabar Major Archbishop Mar Varkey Vithaythil, some like Syrian Orthodox chief Baselius Marthoma Mathews II preferred to call on the prime minister separately.

Even though the group under Vithaythil sought an appointment for a joint meeting, the prime minister's office has not yet given its consent.

Bharatiya Janata Party sources said that a list would be finalised only after weighing all the pros and cons.

Several Hindu sanyasins have also come forward to meet the prime minister. Here too the number of those who would like to meet Vajpayee has caused problem for advisors.

The party's local leadership is keen on him meeting the top leaders of the Ezhava and Nair communites, whom the BJP has been trying to woo without much result. The BJP leaders have been striving to arrange for appointments for P K Narayana Panickkar and Vellappally Natesan, general secretaries of the Nair Service Society and Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SND) Yogam, the socio-cultural wings of the Nair and Ezhava communities.

Local BJP leaders are pinning hopes on these communities to boost ranks in Kerala since they have been keeping equi-distance from the ruling and opposition fronts. Though the BJP has been assiduously trying to champion their interests, the communities having traditional political affiliations have refused to rally behind the BJP.

Panickkar and Natesan have not shown much enthusiasm in meeting the prime minister.

Vajpayee briefly met three members of Parliament, belonging to the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Democratic Front in the morning.

Suresh Kurup of the CPI-M and Francis George and Vakkachan Mattathil of the Kerala Congress (Joseph), had separately and jointly pleaded for the cause of farmers hit by a crash in prices of rubber, coconut and other cash crops, besides demanding chartered tourist flights to Nedumbaserry and doubling of rail lines between Ernakulam and Alappuzha.

This was followed by a meeting with K M Mathew and Mammen Mathew, chief editor and managing editor of Malayala Manorama, a leading Malayalam daily based at Kottayam. The prime minister has agreed to give an audience to M P Veerendra Kumar, managing director of Mathrubhoomi, the second largest Malayalam daily based at Calicut in the next few days.

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