Labour takes on NFP’s Iyer

[posted 2 June 2008, 1630]

Labour has hit back at the usual anti-Labour haranguing by NFP columnist Kamal Iyer in the Fiji Times of 31st May 2008.

Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi, FLP’s assistant secretary general, in a letter to the Fiji Times, responded that as usual Iyer was looking for scapegoats to blame for NFP’s own failings.

“Iyer claims in his opinion piece that a front page report in The Fiji Times of 9 July 1998 titled “Reddy hits out at cash grant” was inaccurate,” Vayeshnoi said.

“He is wrong. Even a cursory reading of Mr Reddy’s parliamentary address during debate on the cash grant for drought-stricken farmers, will show how vehemently the NFP leader opposed government finally succumbing to giving out a cash grant to these suffering farmers.

His address was littered with statements such as “the hardship has nor started and that is well into the future. What are all these frenzy about…?” and “…common sense tells you that no responsible government can indiscriminately give cash money to all the victims of a drought…”

The tragedy for NFP is that instead of joining Labour in its humanitarian fight for assistance to drought-plagued farmers, Jai Ram Reddy and his party chose to play politics and oppose FLP’s demand.

It was a short-sighted and callous strategy for which Mr. Reddy and his party paid an enormous price. NFP has been wiped off the political slate of Fiji except in the opinion of a few of its media collaborators who refuse to accept the changed realities of Fiji politics.

Kamal Iyer needs to come to terms with history as it stands and not attempt to seek scapegoats to blame for his party’s own failings.”