ALAPPUZHA: Valiyachudukadu has for long symbolised the revolutionary spirit of Alappuzha. The martyrs’ column here has always occupied a position of pride in the revolutionary history of the state, especially as the last resting place of the Punnapra-Vayalar martyrs.
For Leftists, this is where their comrades - right from legendary P Krishna Pillai to K R Gouri - have been laid to rest. On Wednesday, Valiya Chudukadu stood witness to the eternal rest of one of the most influential mass leaders of Kerala’s Communist movement - Comrade V S Achuthanandan.
VS, who was part of the Punnapra-Vayalar revolt, had been a regular here every year till 2019, arriving on the seventh of the Malayalam month of Thulam. The late leader truly embodied the spirit of the Punnapra revolt within. It had its reflection not just in the bayonet-pierced wound on his leg, but was also deeply etched in the Communist ideals he upheld all through his life.
One of the few comrades handpicked by Krishna Pillai, VS maintained the same revolutionary fervour till the very end. An ideological hardliner and stickler for party norms for most of his life, VS undoubtedly drew inspiration from the bitter personal struggles he had to undergo at a very young age.
For the residents of Alappuzha, bidding adieu to VS seemed more of a homecoming, rather than a final farewell. The very soil he once marched upon, struggled and bled for, opened its arms one last time to hold him in eternal peace. VS was finally laid to rest near the graves of his close comrades, in the very soil where their ideologies had taken root. For all his ardent supporters, the leader’s story has now come full circle.
“This is where he belongs,” said Prasad P K, a native of Paravoor who had come to Valiya Chudukad for the veteran’s funeral. “This is the soil he fought for. The place that made him who he was. VS must rest here, near T V Thomas and Gouri Amma. He was one of us, before he became everyone’s!” VS truly belonged to the whole of Kerala. And Alappuzha has paid its homage to him in its true spirit.