P Vasu: He fought for freedom, and against Emergency
Born in January 1923, Vasu got a whiff of nationalistic sentiments early when his father took him to hear Mahatma Gandhi when the latter visited Kozhikode in 1934. He was just 11 then, but by the time he was in his late-teens in 1942, Vasu found himself leading an agitation by the Congress in his native Cheruvannur on the sidelines of the Quit India movement. That year, he was arrested and sentenced by a judge to three-and-a-half months in jail , where he was tortured.
In 1943, Vasu had to go underground in erstwhile Madras for over nine months after the police attempted to put him in preventive custody in connection with a case of a bomb threat on Farook bridge. 'I had nothing to do with it but because I was jailed previously, my name was on the police list and I had to go into hiding. It was an extremely tough period,' Vasu told HT over phone.
After Independence, Vasu joined the socialist party and was given its membership by stalwart Jayaprakash Narayan in Kozhikode. His strong beliefs in socialist ideals earned him the nickname among locals -- 'Socio Vasu'.
In 1951, the then Madras presidency, under which the Malabar region in Kerala fell at the time, offered 10 acres of land in Wayanad and ₹2,000 to several freedom fighters including Vasu. But he refused to accept. 'Jayaprakash Narayan told us that we fought for the country's freedom, not for financial gains. Accepting it would have gone against my socialist ideals,' said Vasu.
In 1975 during the Emergency, Vasu was beaten by the police for picketing the local post office. He spent 23 days at the Kozhikode Medical College hospital for treatment. In 1997, on the 50th anniversary of independence, Vasu was felicitated in Delhi by then President KR Narayanan.
Is he happy about the present state of the country? 'No,' came the reply. 'It is not the India we envisioned in 1947. We are losing our secular ideals,' he said.
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