THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: USSR, the erstwhile homeland of Communist revolution may be a Jurassic Park for the rest of the world, but not for the average Malayali.
Kerala had the first democratically elected Communist government in the world. Marx, Engels and Lenin still matter a lot to Communist Malayalis who are sure to be gladdened by good news from England. It was where Karl Marx spent his last years and wrote seminal works including the three volumes of Das Kapital and the The Communist Manifesto along with Friedrich Engels.
Now, Janesh Nair a native of Kottayam, Kidangoor has been elected secretary in that very same England of the ‘Association of Indian Communists’ (AIC) an international wing of the CPM. Janesh is the first Malayali to be elected to this post. The AIC has members from England and Ireland.
Janesh was elected in the 20th conference of the AIC held at Southall in London on March 15-16, in which 116 delegates from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland attended. Till date, this post has been occupied by the Indian diaspora from Punjab and other North Indian states.
Janesh is a staunch SFI, DYFI and CPM party member from Kidangoor where he spent his youth, he settled in England in 2003.
Speaking to The New Indian Express from London, he said that despite limitations, the party unit has successfully carried out several anti-racist campaigns there and organised a protest in front of the Indian High Commission in support of the farmer's protest held in India.
"When I came here, I didn't know that there was a party unit of the CPM in London. Hence, we formed a few progressive forums with like-minded people. It was in 2011-12 that I took membership in the AIC. Now we have 28 units in England alone," said Janesh who works as a Surgical Practitioner at Manchester Foundation Trust Hospital.
AIC also has a mass organisation India Workers Association in England affiliated to it.
"In 1990, the AIC collaborated with the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Trust to campaign for the public release of Udham Singh's last words. Udham Singh was executed in 1940 for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer who ordered the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. We tasted success in 1996," Janesh said.
He also said that former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was expelled from the party for his extreme positions, is a regular guest of the AIC's programmes.
Janesh also told this paper that his name in the official records in Kerala is Janesh C.
"I am not a person who likes caste identity. However, in the passport, the officials expanded the initials too. So my father's name Chandrasekharan Nair was included. Here people often call you by the last name," he rued.
For many CPM state and national leaders, visiting England has become a 'dialectical pilgrimage' as they visit the tomb of Karl Marx and the British library frequented by Marx and Vladimir Lenin.
Former general secretary Sitaram Yechuri, PB members Pinarayi Vijayan, MA Baby and MV Govindan are among the CPM leaders who have visited England.
"Earlier there were very few Malayali party members," said Janesh.
"However, within a few years, this scenario changed, and people from Kerala have now become a majority. The AIC directly reports to the CPM central committee. The conference was inaugurated by politburo member Ashok Dhawale," he said.
Like the CPM conferences held in Kerala, the conference in London too started with the hoisting of the red flag, and the conference leaders then visited Marx's tomb to pay homage afterwards. The conference unanimously elected a 19-member executive committee including two women.
The AIC was officially formed in 1967, soon after the split in the Communist party of India, under the guidance of the former party supremo Harkishan Singh Surjit.