THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “I don’t think this is an issue grave enough to deserve an adjournment motion. I have held talks with student representatives, in light of which, the government has taken certain actions. If these prove unsatisfactory, the House can discuss the same at a later date,” was how the then Chief Minister E M S Namboodiripad rejected one of the first notices for adjournment motion, moved by Thomas John, on November 24, 1958, in the first Kerala assembly.
At a time when Kerala politics was witnessing a crossfire over adjournment motions, the EMS ‘way’ gained significance. March 19 marks the 25th death anniversary of the Communist ideologue who played a pivotal role in shaping both Kerala polity and gathering the masses onward in its march towards another renaissance.
Not surprisingly, 25 years down the lane, the vacuum left by EMS is still felt in Kerala politics. The Left, which used to be a force to reckon with at the national level, has dwindled to dismal levels in the electoral scenario. In Kerala, however, the LDF remains a major force that was able to script history by retaining power, as envisaged by EMS.
EMS departed at a time when Indian politics was undergoing a transitional phase. It was on the very day A B Vajpayee took over as the Prime Minister that the Communist patriarch bade adieu. Barely hours before he breathed his last, he had dictated a couple of articles for CPM mouthpiece ‘Desabhimani.’ Perhaps, it’s like how CPM politburo member M A Baby puts it, “At least in Kerala, the news of his passing away eclipsed the BJP’s tryst with power at the Centre. One can say that even in death, he cocked a snook at Communalism, by denying them media space!”
The day ‘Deshabhimani’ reported EMS’ death, it had also carried an article by the deceased veteran on Indian politics. “EMS had pointed out how BJP was aiming to carve out a communal nation to replace India’s Constitutional republican leanings. He wanted political parties opposed to the communalistic divide of the socio-political and cultural spheres to realise the gravity of this looming threat. In hindsight, his words did prove prophetic indeed,” Baby opined.
However contrary to EMS’ ‘gyaan’, the Left, turned out to be just another political force with no qualms about being dragged into nepotism and corruption charges. Appukkuttan Vallikkunnu, the author of ‘Ariyappedaatha EMS’, feels that the Left has failed to sustain the political culture nurtured by EMS. The Left used to be led by a political narrative that was deeply rooted in a framework set by EMS.
“Nehru had advised EMS to go for polls to avoid dismissal of his government. But EMS strongly felt that his government should not indulge in opportunistic play just to continue in power. Does this hold true today?” he asks. At a time when the Left has a shrinking electoral space, perhaps it’s time to revisit EMS!
THE CONTROVERSIAL COIMBATORE SPEECH
“It is not an attitude of mutual criticism with a view to respective course-correction in the interests of the nation as a whole, but an attitude of wanting to destroy the other, namely the communists, that is inherent in the anti-communist policy pursued by the Opposition in Kerala. This will inevitably lead to a scenario, wherein the two contending groups will be forced to embark on a policy of mutual annihilation leading to a national tragedy,” was how EMS’ controversial Coimbatore speech was quoted in the first Assembly by late Congress leader E P Poulose.