Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran has said that communist stalwarts in Kerala have never unfolded their umbrellas whenever it rained in erstwhile Soviet Russia as once scornfully proclaimed in the 1960s by novelist, social reformer, and estranged Left fellow traveller P. Kesavadev.
The Minister’s statement in the Assembly came as a retort to Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) legislator N. Shamshudeen’s charge that the CPI(M) leaders in Kerala appeared to be stuck in a Soviet-era mindset.
They harboured a phobic anxiety about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and lived in irrational fear of improbable “imperialistic” plots against the party.
The digression came during Mr. Sudhakaran’s reply to the debate on demands on grants for public works. He said Kerala’s communists had their own storied past, faced a different political reality, and did not require to bask in the reflected glory of their iconic Bolshevik comrades in the erstwhile Soviet Union.
The communist party of P. Krishnapillai, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, E.K. Nayanar, V.S. Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan is in power in Kerala. In Brazil and Bolivia, communists are in the Opposition. Its too early to write off the inheritors of the November 7 Russian revolution. “Shamshudeen knows nothing of the CIA or its schemes,” Mr. Sudhakaran said to loud cheers from the ruling benches.
Earlier, Congress legislator P.T. Thomas ignited a brief war of words between the ruling and Opposition Benches when he accused the CPI(M) of attempting to unconvincingly shroud its barefaced political opportunism with play of words.
The CPI(M) says its tie-up with Kerala Congress (M) in the Kottayam district panchayat president’s election is just a provincial arrangement and will not extend across the State.
Its accord with the Congress in West Bengal is only a national level understanding and will not apply in Kerala. “Hello, so what is your political stance in the State?” he asked.
Mr. Thomas said that anyone who crosses the well of the House to their (LDF) side is hailed as a saint. First it was R. Balakrishna Pillai and now it is K.M. Mani. The CPI(M) had vilified both before embracing them out of political expediency.
E.P. Jayarajaan said the CPI(M) was committed to opposing the Congress and the BJP at once. A.M. Shamsheer, CPI(M), pointed out that the Congress leaders had quietly dropped the epithet “sir” while referring to Mr. Mani.
