23-07-2025
V S Achuthanandan, a rebel with many causes
The fifth communist Chief Minister of Kerala was the first proletarian. When V S Achuthanandan organised coir factory workers, he was one. His role in the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising contributed to his legend. Struggle defined his life and career from the beginning, whether it was against the Travancore monarchy, for the many causes he championed, or for supremacy in the party. Successful or otherwise, they helped shape the reality of Kerala today. His reinvention of himself from organisation man to mass leader, and the image he built of a tireless campaigner unafraid to go against the party line, won him an enduring place in the public imagination.
The tussle for power in the Kerala CPM between Achuthanandan and the current Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, shadowed much of the political discourse in the early 2000s, right up till Vijayan's victory in 2016. It's seen as having an ideological dimension, with Achuthanandan taking the more orthodox line, as the Left across India tried to articulate a response to the tide of economic liberalisation. Achuthanandan's Marxism dovetailed with his anti-corruption stance, environmentalism and commitment to people's land rights, as seen in his campaigns to protect wetlands, ensure justice for victims of the endosulfan tragedy and opposition to the Plachimada Coca-Cola plant, and his drive against encroachment in Munnar. He was ready to take up more unlikely causes, too, such as open-source software. There's also a different story to be told, of IT parks and infrastructure — Technopark saw massive expansion and the Kochi Metro project was approved during his tenure as CM.
The last survivor of the 32 members of the CPI national council who walked out to form the CPM in 1964, Achuthanandan remained a rebel throughout his life. It often led him into conflicts with his party. He was expelled from the Politburo twice and was even characterised as functioning like an opposition leader when he was CM. He was no stranger to intra-party political manoeuvring, having crushed a rival faction in the party's trade union wing, the CITU, in the 1990s, and played a role in the ousters of senior party leaders M V Raghavan and K R Gouri Amma; eventually, he was outmanoeuvred himself. But if there was one factor that remained unchanged, it was the fervour he inspired among the people — the public outcry in 2006, which pushed the party leadership to walk back its decision not to field him in the assembly polls, is one example. That spirit could be heard one last time during his funeral procession on Tuesday in the slogans that rang in the streets.
