Communists love conspiracy theories, especially about Americans. Forty-nine years after the world’s first democratically elected communist government was toppled in Kerala, Marxists in the state are on a “whodunnit” mission. Thomas Isaac, state finance minister and a CPI(M) Central Committee member, returned from a US tour recently with what he calls “irrefutable evidence” to prove the CIA’s role in funding the Congress party, the Church and other religious and caste organisations. This, he claims, was aimed at bringing down the E.M.S. Namboodiripad government in 1959..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Though charges of the CIA hand have been around for long, they won some endorsement in the late 1970s from Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former US ambassador to India, who in his memoirs wrote that Indira Gandhi, then Congress president had on two occasions received substantial funds from US agencies including the CIA. Now Isaac claims to have collected from the Oral History Archives of the Columbia University a copy of an interview given by Ellsworth Bunker who was US ambassador to India during 1957-59 when the shortlived government was sworn in and then dismissed. Nehru and NamboodiripadBunker is quoted as saying, “It’s a fact that we did give the Congress party financial assistance because we knew the Russians were putting money into the Communist Party.”Though Isaac spares none, he need not have any fears of retribution since nearly all those he names as conspirators are long dead—Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi, S.K. Patil, Dwight Eisenhover, CIA chief Allan Dulles and many others.It is still not known whether Isaac’s voyage of discovery was aimed at personal enlightenment or whipping up public passions over a 50-year-old “injustice”. In an age when a government is only as good as its last good deed, Isaac’s revelations are not likely to pay dividends for the Marxistled LDF Government in Kerala, one of the most unpopular in recent times.—M.G. RadhakrishnanPublished By: AtMigration Published On: May 29, 2008--- ENDS ---
