This essay was written by Thiruvananthapuram-based senior journalist MB Santhosh, who shared a close bond with veteran Communist leader VS Achuthanandan. It was translated from Malayalam by Vandana Mohandas.
She was a mother of two, her youngest only four years old. She was on her deathbed, suffering from small pox, and wanted to see her children one last time. The children were brought to the banks of the stream near the thatched hut where she was quarantined. Through the gaps in the wall, she got a tear-filled glimpse of them.Though unaware of what was going on, the children too were in tears. The four-year-old saw his mother wave at them; his instinct told him to rush to her, but he was held back by those around him.
This is not a page straight out of a story or a novel, but a tear-soaked episode from the life of one of the most-revered political leaders of Kerala, VS Achuthanandan.
“In those days, smallpox was a scary disease. If contracted, the person was sure to die. So, the patient would be isolated. And when my mother demanded to see us, I remember standing near the stream. Through the gap of the thatch, she gestured for me to come to her. That day, she died.”
The cruelties that fate had in store for that four-year-old did not stop there. After the demise of his mother Akkamma, it was his father Sankaran who took care of him. By the time he turned 11, Sankaran had fallen ill. Soon, he too left the world.
“I used to pray regularly for my father’s health. I prayed to all gods. I also went to the vaidyar (traditional physician) to get him medicine, but none of it worked. Father too died. I lost my trust in gods. Since then, I haven’t prayed. Only later, when I started reading science books, did I realise that prayers are a sham,” explained VS, whose atheism was rooted in his own experiences.
It doesn’t end there.
The VS Achuthanandan that the world later got to know was, in fact, his second birth. In some sense, the rebirth was thanks to the benevolence of a petty thief. That could be why VS went on to become the stuff of nightmares for all sorts of thievery and fraud.
The story goes like this:
It was September of 1946. The Alissery Ground in Alappuzha witnessed a historical public meeting against the American Model governance by Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyer, the Diwan of Travancore. The prominent speakers of the meeting included MN Govindan Nair, TV Thomas, N Sreekantan Nair, TK Divakaran, Varghese Vaidyan, and VS Achuthanandan. Soon, an arrest warrant was issued against the leaders; all of them went into hiding. Leaders like R Sugathan and VA Simon were already behind bars.
The arrest of prominent leaders affected organisational activities in Poonjar of Kottayam district, where the Communist movement was still finding its feet. KV Pathrose, who was the Communist party’s state assistant secretary, bestowed VS with the task of serving in Poonjar. Since an arrest warrant was in place, VS couldn’t publicly engage in party activities in Alappuzha and hence, he set off to Poonjar, where he worked under the aliases Manmadhan, Raju, and Joseph. After completing the reorganisation of the party in a short span of time, VS shifted his base to the fierce Punnapra-Vayalar uprising.
October 23, 1946: He inaugurated the march of thousands of workers to the police camp in Punnapra. Following this, VS, heeding a party directive, left the march and went to Karimbuvalavu near Pookkaitha River to the house of Bhavani Amma, whose brother Olothra Krishnankunju was the secretary of the toddy tappers and workers union.
When the march reached the camp premises, the police opened fire at the protesters on the orders of inspector Velayudhan Nadar. Crawling on the ground, armed with spears, the protesters fought back, but nearly 50 workers lost their lives.
Sankaran, a coconut tree climber, beheaded Velayudhan Nadar. Including Nadar, nearly 10 policemen died. The protestors seized arms from the policemen and brought two guns to VS. “I asked them to dispose of those in the Pookkaitha River. Following the party directive, I went into hiding in Poonjar,” recalled VS.
He was hiding at the home of a beedi worker when he landed in the police net. The policemen had taken him in for being a Communist ideologue, and had no idea that this was the man wanted in the Punnapra-Vayalar case. He was thrashed black and blue at the Erattupetta Police Outpost and later, at the Pala police station.
It was CID Vasu Pillai, the confidante of SP Vaidyanatha Iyer, who recognised VS. What followed was barbaric torture. After all, they had arrested the accused in the case of the death of nearly 10 cops, including an inspector.
“Both my legs were tied to the bars of the lockup door, secured by lathis on both sides. Policemen outside the lockup kept thrashing the soles of my feet using lathis. Hours later, my feet went numb. They tortured me asking me to reveal the names in the palm leaf manuscript found in the house I stayed while in hiding. They tortured me brutally; a policeman thrust the bayonet of his rifle into my leg (VS pointed to the dark scar on his leg). Blood gushed out and I fainted in the lockup,” the revolutionary dived into memories.
One day, Narayana Pillai, a notorious policeman who went by the name ‘Idiyan’ (thrasher), came to the lockup and unleashed his wrath on VS, stomping on his back with his boot-clad feet, leaving him battered and bruised to the extent that he couldn’t even urinate. Along with VS in the lockup was a thief named Kolappan, who tended to his wounds using the oil he had.
Knocked unconscious, VS was left for dead by Idiyan, who ordered that his body be dumped in the woods. Kolappan was asked to join the policemen to dispose of the body. While ferrying the ‘corpse’, Kolappan felt a faint pulse. Crying, he begged the cops to save him and they took him to the General Hospital in Pala. Doctors found faint traces of life in the battered body of VS. And that marked his rebirth.
Call it the strange ways of fate, one of the policemen who tortured VS had to depend on him years later. It was sub inspector Krishnan Nair who awkwardly approached VS.
By then, Kerala was born and it was the regime of the Communist government. VS was the Alappuzha district secretary of the undivided Communist Party and state secretariat member when Krishnan Nair came to meet him with a letter from CS Gopala Pillai, the party’s Kottayam district secretary, seeking VS’s recommendation for his promotion.
Asked what his response was, VS said, “I said I’ll see.” “Did you?” I asked, to which he responded with a wide grin, adding, “He would have got [the promotion] if he was worthy of it.”
During his political career spanning eight decades, VS served as chief minister, opposition leader, Administrative Reforms Commission chairman, LDF convener, CPI(M) state secretary and politburo member, among others.
Asked which was the most satisfying role, VS responded, “What I consider important is that I could live as a Communist ideologue throughout these stints. I didn’t wish for anything when I decided to serve people. But I could do a lot more than I had hoped for. I had to face brutality, objections, and accusations from various quarters. What kept me going and satisfied all along was the unconditional support from the marginalised strata.”
Have there been disappointing experiences in your political career?
“No, there haven't been such situations. But I am very concerned about communal forces deepening their roots in the Indian soil. It’s the time for Left, secular, and democratic forces to forget their differences and strongly resist them. Electoral failures are temporary. Trust the people and work for them earnestly, they will give you their hearts.”
Your dreams while you took up political life are yet to be fulfilled, aren't they?
Communist ideologues are aware that dreams are far from reality. To fulfil each wish, it takes huge struggles. I was able to be a part of a few of those, and could be at the forefront of a few others. One thing is for sure, it’s these struggles that shaped Kerala into the state that we see today. We still have a long way to go.
Which slogan do you find the most thrilling?
The slogan ‘American Model Arabikkadalil’ (Chuck the American model into the Arabian Sea) was raised as part of the struggle to free the country.
How did you develop this unique sharp, punctuated, and animated oratory style?
That was a style developed to attract farmers to the speech while organising the workers' unions in Kuttanad. It stayed.
Have you come across mimicry artists imitating you?
I have seen that often. I also follow cartoons that make fun of me. And I enjoy all of it.
***
At 95, VS was as energetic and enthusiastic as ever. Only recently had he learnt Hindi. He wished to try his oratory skills in Hindi and soon got a tutor and started training, eventually becoming fluent in the language.
Once he makes up his mind, there’s no going back. It’s this discipline that kept VS robust till a very late age. In his younger days, VS used to smoke beedis and cigarettes; he was a chain-smoker. In 1959, he came down with a fever that turned into asthma. It was Dr KN Pai who suggested that VS quit smoking.
“Can you quit smoking?” he asked. “Okay,” he agreed. The doctor thought it was a joke and asked, “When can you stop?” “Now,” he retorted. Dr Pai suggested that he avoid tea and coffee intake too. That moment, his patient gave up not only smoking, but tea and coffee too, forever.
VS’s family comprised his wife, kids, grandchildren, and the public. That he was the voice of the people for long made VS Achuthanandan a popular leader of the times and earned him a place in the heart of every Keralite.