It seems that at last CPM also has come to admit that veteran Communist leader V S Achuthanandan had played very little or no role in the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising.
Apparently toeing the official line of the party, the CPM mouthpiece Deshabhimani daily has carried an edit page article on Punnapra-Vayalar uprising on the occasion of its 67th anniversary penned by party’s Alappuzha district secretary C B Chandrababu which has no mention of Achuthanandan’s role in the uprising of the workers and peasants occurred in the last week of October I946.
The article is reminiscent of the struggle for ending Divan’s rule in Travancore, for establishing responsible rule and dethroning the American model administration and calling for universal adult franchise.
Besides these political slogans, the Action Council of Trade Unions was also calling for ending feudalism.The Punnapra-Vayalar uprising was the culmination of the almost two-decade-old struggle by the working class and peasants.
While the author tries to be ‘honest’ according to party line, he failed to give prominence to leaders who had been in the forefront of the struggle.
The article says that leaders such as P Krishna Pillai, E M S Namboodirippadu and K C George came to Alappuzha by country boats and held secret discussions with local leaders T V Thomas, P T Punnoose and K P Pathrose and exhorted the All-Travancore Trade Union Congress-led Action Council to launch a general strike on October 22, 1946.
But there is no mention of the role of leaders such as ‘Vayalar Stalin’ C K Kumara Panicker and V S Achuthanandan. According to noted historian A Sreedhara Menon, EMS was away attending a meeting of Yoga Kshema Sabha on the day of the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising.
There had also been unconfirmed reports that V S Achuthanandan had already gone underground somewhere in the Poonjar area of Kottayam district during those violent days.
But over the past many decades, CPM workers at party forums and functions were describing him as the hero of Punnapra-Vayalar uprising.
However, party allowed him to attend the Punnapra-Vayalar anniversary meeting in Alappuzha the other day.