Chennithala’s flights of fancy

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ramesh Chennithala has not crowned himself with glory by starting a new trend in electioneering in the state. He is the first local leader to use a helicopter for campaigning in Kerala, one of the smallest states with the highest population density. The All India Congress Committee has, reportedly, placed at his disposal a chopper, ostensibly to facilitate campaign by the party’s national leaders like Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. But he found it convenient to hop from Kottayam to Haripad from where he is contesting to the Assembly. Little does he know that his extravaganza has evoked only derision and he has already become a butt of ridicule.
Kerala is one extended town from Mancheswaram in the north to Parassala in the south. Relatively speaking, it has excellent communication systems, though the roads tend to be narrow because people have traditionally preferred to build houses that open into roads. It is the only state which has three fully-functional international airports, while a fourth one is being planned at Kannur. All this rules out the need for use of helicopters. Of course, helicopters were used by national leaders of the Congress in the past and nobody questioned their right to do so because they addressed meetings only at a few important centres. That cannot be the case with Chennithala who, by virtue of the position he holds, has to campaign in all the constituencies where the Congress has fielded candidates.
31/03/11 Expressbuzz

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Mar 2011