A two-time MLA, a Congress vice-president and the party’s digital media cell chairman in Kerala, V T Balram finds himself in rough waters over a controversial post put out on X by the party drawing a parallel between Bihar and bidis.
The Congress has rushed to Balram’s defence, claiming he was not privy to the post and that the lapse was on the part of those who managed the party’s X handle. However, with Bihar elections months away, the controversy is threatening to singe the 47-year-old.
An engineering and management graduate, Balram first got associated with the Congress when in college, as part of the party’s Kerala Students’ Union. In 2009, he was appointed the state secretary of the Youth Congress and was subsequently made its general secretary.
Seen as one of the Congress’s young faces in the state, Balram was handpicked in 2011 by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi to contest the Thrithala Assembly seat – seen to be a CPI(M) bastion since 1991. Impressing the Congress, Balram won the seat and retained it five years later. In 2021, however, he lost to the CPI(M)’s M B Rajesh.
As proof of his advocacy for public education, Balram in 2017 enrolled his son in a government lower primary school, and also left the religion column blank, saying his son was free to choose his religion once he became an adult.
But it’s not Balram’s first brush with controversy. A decade back, he had left many feathers ruffled when he accused powerful community leaders of meddling in the party’s organisational affairs.
In 2018, Balram questioned veteran CPI(M) leader A K Gopalan’s marriage to fellow communist Susheela, who was much younger than him. He has also locked horns with pro-Left writers over their “silence” in political murders involving the CPI(M).
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The Congress has stood by Balram despite its own leader V D Satheesan, the Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, seeking to distance the party from the post, saying he was not even aware the Congress had a social media cell.
In a Facebook post Monday, state Congress chief Sunny Joseph said: “The party has neither taken any action against him (Balram) nor has he quit as the convenor of the digital media committee.” He said the posts on X were prepared and published by a section of pro-Congress professionals. “Their responsibility is to prepare reactions on topics pertaining to Kerala. While posting on national issues, they have to act as per the stand and directions of the AICC.”
Joseph added that Balram had himself intervened when the post pertaining to Bihar drew outrage from Congress rivals, and had it removed.
However, Joseph hinted Balram may be eased out. “Keeping the upcoming local body elections and next year’s Assembly polls in mind, the party will reconstitute the social media wing while taking Balram’s views into consideration.”
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In a Facebook post Monday, Balram too suggested the same, saying: “Considering my organisational responsibilities as the Congress state vice-president, I had informed the party about my limitations in handling the digital media cell… The Congress has never blamed me for the controversial post and the leadership is aware of my intervention to rectify the lapse on the part of those who handle X. The social media wing will also be reorganised as a part of the party’s exercise ahead of the upcoming polls.”
The party’s X handle with 1.54 lakh followers has emerged as a voice to reckon with on social media, posting memes and videos targeting the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In one such post during Operation Sindoor earlier this year, the handle shared a clip from the 2013 Malayalam comedy Oru Indian Pranayakadha to target the RSS, which had claimed its Shakha-trained volunteers could be ready in three days since the Army took “too long”. It claimed that the volunteers were “completely silent during the actual conflict”
In May, the handle posted a photograph of Modi sitting outside the enclosure of a tiger with the comment “Beware the real tiger, not the paper one.”
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On the other hand, the post that stirred the row had said, “Bidis and Bihar start with B. Cannot be considered a sin anymore.” Accompanying the message was a graphic comparing the existing and proposed GST rates, showing taxes on bidis reduced from 28% to 18%, while taxes on cigarettes increased from 28% to 40%. While it was aimed at criticising the Centre’s GST policy on tobacco products, its language has been termed offensive and unacceptable by several political leaders. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, a key Congress ally and Leader of the Opposition in Bihar, called for an apology.