THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Those 30 excruciating minutes of his life exemplified khaki-clad brutality. “I was made to lie on my stomach. One of the policemen used the edge of his lathi to beat me on the spine, while another kicked me with his boot.
Yet another was punching me with an iron-piece covered in a cloth; I was shaking with pain... they didn’t stop,” Kunnukuzhi Manoharan shudders as he relives the trauma. Now in his 80s, Manoharan hasn’t forgotten anything, even after 47 years.
He was the first accused in the reportedly first-ever major protest against ‘Emergency’ in Kerala, held on July 10, 1975. June 25, marks the forty-seventh anniversary of the imposition of Emergency in India. Madhavan Manoharan of Varambassery House in Kunnukuzhi ward of Vanchiyoor, according to police records, served a jail term of six months alongside K Anirudhan, M A Baby, G Sudhakaran, M Vijayakumar, M Sathyanesan and Palayam Baker for having led a 12-member secretariat picketing.
That, incidentally, was the first major protest by the CPM against Emergency in the state. “The secretariat picketing, planned for July 9, was to be led by stalwarts like EMS and AKG. But somehow the police got wind of it and they were arrested on the way. That’s how we were asked to hold the picketing on July 10,” Manoharan recollects.
The 12 of them stood in front of the secretariat and waited for Suseela Gopalan, MP, to arrive to lead the picketing. On her arrival, they raised slogans and moved towards the secretariat, breaking the police cover, Manoharan recalls.
He was then the CPM Palayam local committee member and CITU committee secretary. He was charged under the Defence of India Rule (DIR), while many others were charged under MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act). On release from jail, he had to undergo ayurveda treatment for almost six years for his bruised body to heal.