It's the day when Kerala is seeing the last farewell for the late VS Achuthanandan. The outpouring of love for the Communist stalwart, with 'Samaram aanu VS' booming all along the way, stands testimony to the fact that the 101-year-old will always live on in the hearts and minds of the millions who cherish their Comrade.
Never an ideologue, the legendary leader was able to effectively fill the political vacuum left by EMS Namboodiripad's demise in Kerala politics. Till the end, he championed both the party's and the Leftist cause in Kerala and remained the quintessential people's leader.
The election memories he left behind are many.
In the state's first-ever bypoll in 1958, he brought in the one-and-only MGR to campaign for the Left. With MGR was a then unknown boy who would sing at campaign meetings. He later went on to be known as the legendary Ilayaraja.
In 2015, he led the Left battle against KM Mani in the assembly. Even in the 2019 by-election—his final political outing—VS was in his element, unleashing a scathing attack on political opponents.
Though a leader with limited formal education, he stood out from his peers for his political wisdom, which led him to take up a slew of people's issues—be it environmental issues like Pooyamkutty, or issues related to women's safety.
People saw in him their saviour. Someone who was patient enough to lend an ear to their woes, a politician who was never reluctant to take up their causes, an Opposition within his own party, a leader of the masses.
Patient listener who was open to new ideas
His once close associates clearly remember how VS took up various causes like the free software movement at a time when such concepts were unheard of in Kerala.
"In fact, I had met a couple of senior Left leaders at the time, and none of them were even ready to listen. That's when one of them—obviously to get rid of me—directed me to VS, who was then the Opposition Leader. I was given only five minutes to explain and was obviously worried as to how to explain in such a short period. VS was sitting in his office at Cantonment House. He gave me a patient hearing and kept jotting on a brown cover. Once I finished, he asked me to repeat everything slowly. I was sweating profusely. I repeated everything in the same order.
"He kept on asking me whether I was exaggerating. He finally realised its immense significance, and could sense the politics behind it. He then asked me to come up with a statement. He told me, 'Only the truth must be told, but that doesn't necessarily mean a narration of mere facts'. This was a rare quality among politicians. It's surprising how he was able to grasp the politics of free software. At a time when even youngsters were unable to comprehend, VS immediately grasped its core concept," VK Sasidharan once told The New Indian Express. Later during his Chief Ministerial tenure too, VS actively took up the free software movement and even shared a dais with Richard Stallman, the world-renowned American free software movement activist.
'How will you profit, if you gain the world, but lose your soul?'
How VS took on the late Kerala Congress supremo KM Mani in the assembly over the bar bribery scam is a lesson in itself for political aspirants. It was on March 10, 2015—just two days before the notorious Assembly bedlam—that VS tore into Mani in the Assembly, quoting from the Holy Bible: "Mr Mani, there will come a time when verses in the Bible will come true. I can't even imagine Mani rotting in hell's eternal fire, surrounded by deadly worms."
He even had the audacity to read aloud from the Gospel of Matthew for Mani's benefit. Unleashing a barrage of vitriolic humour on the hapless minister, Achuthanandan solemnly quoted from the Holy Bible. "Aren’t Mani, Oommen Chandy and PC George all believers? Aren't they well-versed with the Bible? Let me quote from the Gospel of Matthew: How will a man profit, if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul? - Chapter 16: Verse 26", before staging a walkout.
Mani couldn't be blamed for losing his cool and terming Achuthanandan 'Antichrist'.
Soul-searching leader who was CPM's biggest crowd-puller
Though VS chose to be the voice of dissent within the party, he simultaneously managed to remain its most reliable soldier. A scathing internal critic, he was yet its biggest crowd-puller. A soul-searching leader, who would put his party in a spot, he was yet the one who would also come to its rescue.
No wonder Achuthanandan would be remembered as a study in contrast. A revolutionary Marxist. Having said that, it wouldn't be right if we forget to say that his party—the CPI(M)—never gave up on him.
VS may have nurtured political ambitions, but never at the cost of his convictions—be it political or personal—a rare characteristic that made him a true-blood comrade!
Undoubtedly one of the greatest mass leaders the state ever had, frenzied masses hung on to his every word, relishing his adept feints, pointed barbs and striking analogies—all rolled out in his quintessential colloquial style. The silence and emptiness he leaves behind is numbing.
