It is monsoon in Kerala, but the only thing that is pouring consistently is an embarrassment — for the ruling CPM. While rain has largely stayed away, marking its presence occasionally, CPM leaders seem determined to splash mud on themselves in what can be best described as an effort to induce excitement into otherwise a dull start to the season. It almost feels like the sound drubbing that the party received in the elections has been forgotten and it is ready for more humiliation, which the people will be happy to serve if comrades don’t realise what they are doing to themselves and their cause.
The CPM is being justifiably made to answer for the June 18 suicide of an NRI businessman in Kannur district. The 49-year-old, a CPM sympathiser himself, ended his life after an auditorium he built spending all he had was denied permission by the party-ruled municipality. While fingers are being pointed at inner-party rivalry, particularly at P K Shyamala, chairperson of Anthoor Municipality and wife of CPM central committee member M V Govindan, the government chose to act only against some officials.
The fact is Anthoor Municipality has no opposition at all — all 28 elected members belong to the CPM. The party’s dominance is such that in the elections to the civic body in 2015, its candidates in 14 seats had no opponents. Not necessarily because they were so popular. The reality is fear is a big electoral factor in Kannur, once known for its communist movement and now for its culture of political violence.
The district to which Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state CPM chief Kodiyeri Balakrishnan belong is said to have seen nearly 200 political murders in five decades. Here murders are a political investment and fear the dividend. It’s unreasonable to think that officials of a civic body fully controlled by the CPM will do anything that’s not desired by the political administration.
The businessman’s death shows how the anti-entrepreneurial culture — a legacy of the strong communist movement and resultant trade unionism — still prevails in the state regardless of Vijayan’s assurances of creating an investment-friendly Kerala. It’s not the first instance of comrades being held responsible for an entrepreneur’s death in the state, not even in recent history.
In February 2018, a 64-year-old Gulf returnee in Kollam killed himself after the AIYF, CPI’s youth wing, prevented him from setting up a workshop. The man, who worked as a mechanic in Oman for four decades, spent all his money on leasing out a piece of land and erecting a shed. One morning, he found AIYF flags planted on the land, indicating that it was no longer available to him.
That was the end of his dream. He tried to buy peace by paying money to the extorting comrades but was made to run around more. Fed up, he hanged himself in the shed that was to be his workshop.
It’s possible that the militant trade unionism nurtured by the Left may have killed many such dreams and many an entrepreneur. It certainly had a role in Kerala lacking industrial development and entrepreneurial mentality. What’s ironic is that even while the CM is touring countries seeking investment, the comrades back home are making life difficult for entrepreneurs.
Another embarrassment for the CPM right now is the rape-cum-cheating case against Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s son Binoy, a man with business interests in the Gulf and other places. Binoy has been accused by a Mumbai-based woman of forcing her into a relationship by promising marriage.
She claims Binoy is the father of her child. Here again, it’s not the first time the party is being put in an embarrassing situation by the Kodiyeri family. Last year, Binoy was accused of cheating a UAE-based businessman and the Gulf country had imposed a travel ban on him. The case was settled later, reportedly at the intervention of the party.
Almost at the same time, Kodiyeri’s younger son Bineesh too was reportedly booked in Dubai in a couple of cheating cases. It’s ironic that while a communist leader’s business-minded sons are heaping embarrassment on the party, a genuine entrepreneur was driven to suicide by the collective conspiracy of some in the party.
(Kiran Prakash is the Resident Editor, Kerala. You can mail him at kiranprakash@newindianexpress.com)