Ningal Enne Communist Aakki (You made me Communist)

By O.J.George
Kottayam: This was the slogan for the down-trodden in olden times. This was also the title of a play that ploughed through the length and breadth and the hearts and minds of the people of Kerala, espousing the cause of the Communist.

The tortured, tormented, marginalised, dispossessed beings of nothingness all clung to this classic cry.V.S.Achuthanandan was one among them and he worked for these people.

Now, when he is demoted and made to sit below the ranks of small fries of yore, opposing the principle against which he had fought a bitter battle throughout his life, he may be, while furrowing a new path, shouting from the roof-top, “You made me Communist”.Others have become un-Communist.

Perhaps, Marxist ideologue P.Govinda Pillai has to be admired for his don’t- care attitude while breathing down the ignominies of a series of demotions and still vouching for the title, “I will die a Communist”.

There is no forum below the one he is holding now in the party. He is a member of the branch committee, after having been serially stripped membership in the central committee, state committee, district committee, and area committee.

But once in a while he makes classic comments like “E M S was not that great an intellectual” and then subjects himself to correction, which lands him up in the branch committee, a pedestrian position for a well-read person.

Achuthanandan has also been demoted four or five times for various crimes of omission and commission. But he is a fighter, as K.R.Gowri Amma rightly said.

Now for a few days he would mull over the predicament. Meanwhile, he would make his mind clear to the people.

Today it was like that. His fight against corruption is unrelenting. Shanti Bhooshan argued on behalf of him in the Supreme Court seeking to expedite the Idamalayar corruption case against former Power Minister R.Balakrishna Pillai.

And Balakrishna Pillai has commented the case is not against him, but against Pinarayi Vijayan, figuratively.Which means Achuthanandan’s fight against corruption is not over and his views on Lavalin case are not corrigible.

The Opposition has been provoking him in the Assembly to make some statement about his demotion.

The first salvo was an adjournment motion stating the absence of collective responsibility and miserable failure of administration on account of the squabbles in the CPM.

The latest was an adjournment motion highlighting the attack on those who shouted slogans in favour of the Chief Minister. Achuthanandan is keeping mum.

Meanwhile, the party higher-ups are in Thiruvananthapuram to evolve proper strategy at the state secretariat and the state committee to save the party from perdition arising from groupism.

They forget for a moment that groupism is a fact of political life here. It is not like removing Somnath Chatterjee from the party.

Removing V.S.Achuthanandan will not solve the problems. It will only vitiate matters further.

As for Achuthanandan, since his followers in positions in the party as well as government would not be amenable to moving out with him, he may have to suffer.Achuthanandan can move out only if the CPI, the RSP etc follow him.

They support his cause, but when it comes to parting of ways, they may go back and cite the larger cause of fight against imperialism, colonialism, feudalism and all to remain with the official line as an omnibus entity.