KOZHIKODE: Communist leader EMS Namboodirippad had tried to demolish the notion that some people were destined to be leaders and the rest remain as followers forever, writer M T Vasudevan Nair has said. Delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of the Kerala Literature Festival being organised by DC Books in Kozhikode on Thursday, MT said this was the reason why EMS never approved of sycophancy.
Many derided EMS when he confided that he committed mistakes in his earlier stand on literature. “Now no leader in the socio-political and cultural world is ready to admit the mistake he committed. I see it (EMS’s efforts) as an attempt to overcome the self and accept others’ perspective,” MT said.
MT read out his prepared speech, which was laced with attacks on authoritarianism, in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who inaugurated the function. Pinarayi’s detractors have seized the opportunity claiming that MT’s speech was against the CM’s style of functioning, which, they allege, is marked by arrogance and autocracy.
The writer said becoming a member of the assembly or Parliament is seen as an opportunity to attain power. “We have buried the notion that being in power means an opportunity to serve the people. This notion was forgotten in Russia where the Tsarist rule was overthrown through a historic revolution,” he said.
“The people who participated in the revolution were a crowd. You can easily provoke or convert them as fans or warriors,” MT said.
Freedom not charity offered by rulers: MT
“The crowd should be converted to a responsible society and should earn freedom through self-fortification. Freedom is not the charity offered by the rulers,” MT said.
He said the Communist party might have concluded that it reached the destination after coming to power through the ballot in 1957. EMS became a respected leader because he believed that attaining power was only the beginning of transforming the crowd, which assembled at Maidan and filled the ballot boxes, into a responsible society, he said. MT added that those who stick to age-old notions of society’s freedom and development will be rejected by history.
Society’s concept of freedom undergoes constant changes and revisions, he said. In his address, Pinarayi said: “Kerala Literature Festival validates the fact that the cent per cent literate state of Kerala continues to evolve into an enlightened state.
Tourism Minister P A Mohamed Riyas, festival director K Satchidanandan and others attended.