Hard-boiled and hard-core, CPI(M) leader VS Achuthanandan enters his 100th year

For many in Kerala, even the occasional mention of this former chief minister and CPI(M) stalwart is still awe-inspiring.

For generations, he was a rare phenomenon — a politician who preached and practised probity in public life.

And both admirers and adversaries agree that he continues to be a towering presence nobody can, or should, ignore.

VS Achuthanandan with late environmentalist Sugathakumari, the two powerful voices of conservation in Kerala. (Supplied)

Over the last several months, the only mode of communication between the leader and the masses was the occasional Facebook post by his son VA Arun Kumar, from his Barton Hills residence in Thiruvananthapuram.

The latest occasion was 1 October, when Achuthananadan’s long-term party colleague Kodiyeri Balakrishnan breathed his last.

“He remained still for a moment. I saw tears cloud his eyes. He told me to pass his condolences,” wrote Arun Kumar on Facebook, eliciting numerous comments, most of them — surprisingly — from the young who “liked” the message and asked after the well-being of the iconic leader, who, till well into his 90s, would travel 200 km a day and address at least a dozen public meetings.

A life of struggle

Born in poverty and brought up amidst adversity — he lost his mother when he was hardly four years old and his father when he was 11 — the lone surviving founding leader of the CPI(M), Achuthanandan, lent new meaning to Left politics in Kerala and across the country

Achuthanandan having lunch at home. (Supplied)

Little wonder, then, that CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri once called him the party’s Fidel Castro.

“On 18 October, 2019, Achuthanandan made his last public appearance — a campaign rally of the CPI(M) candidate in the by-election to the state Assembly from Vattiyoorkavu. That was two days before he turned 96, and he spoke for three-and-a-half minutes. Within six days, the neurological stroke occurred, and it compelled him to retreat from active public life,” recalled Joseph C Mathew, a close confidant of Achuthanandan and his information technology-related adviser when he was chief minister.

Achuthanandan, affectionately called VS by followers, was a star campaigner for the party and other constituents of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) from 1958.

Stalwart both within and outside the party

An ardent anti-corruption crusader, Achuthanandan continues to be a powerful symbol of probity and transparency in public life.

Achuthanandan with his wife. (Supplied)

One of the country’s first champions of green politics, he attempted to bridge communism with environmental concerns.

He regularly stood with civil-society movements and their more significant concerns, even when they conflicted with his party’s decisions. In the process, he invited numerous disciplinary actions from the party.

Within the organisations, he groomed many present-day leaders, including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, but questioned them whenever they deviated from the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism.

He always preferred to stick with the programmes and policies of the party.

The fight with Vijayan often reached extreme proportions. His targeting of Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin corruption case resulted in his removal from the Politburo, the party’s highest decision-making body.

For the cadres and civil society, he was always a doughty fighter. Both when in and out of power, he fought against corporates that plundered natural resources, including water and biodiversity-rich forests.

He was against the development concept, disregarding the concerns of affected communities.

Despite his humble educational background, Achuthanandan became a champion of free software and the movements against monopolistic interests in the IT sector.

Achuthanandan’s copybook Communism has been why even his party colleagues can’t stand him on crucial occasions. But it was the same quality that endeared him to the masses.

A peek into his life and ideals

Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan. (Supplied)

Born to Sankaran and Accamma in the interiors of the Alappuzha district, Achuthanandan had a childhood riddled with poverty and impoverishment.

Orphaned early, he was forced by circumstances to discontinue education in Class 7 and join the tailoring shop managed by his elder brother.

In the subsequent years, Achuthanandan eked out a living by meshing coir at a rope factory in the same village.

“I may have been able to continue my studies without books. But I lacked the stamina to starve in school every day,” he said once when journalists asked about his discontinued education. However, he remained an ardent reader.

Achuthanandan started his political journey as a trade union activist and joined the Congress in 1938. Like most Congress leaders, he was later attracted by the ideology of communism.

He formally joined the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1940 and was soon elected as the party’s district secretary in Alappuzha.

A freedom fighter, Achuthanandan was imprisoned for over five years, and spent another four-and-a-half years underground when the party was banned.

Achuthanandan with Congress leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala. (Supplied)

He had found a place for himself in the long and chequered history of the Left movement in India by being active in the Punnapra-Vayalar peasant uprising. During that rebellion, a police bayonet was driven through his leg.

Now, he is the sole surviving leader of the undivided CPI who boycotted the national party council in 1964 on ideological grounds to float the CPI(M).

The CPI(M) veteran was also known as a hardliner in his personal life. Achuthanandan was known for his strict sense of discipline. He has a modest but strict diet plan.

His wife Vasumathi worked as a nurse with Kerala’s Health Department; she retired about 22 years ago.

Son Arun, an MCA holder, is currently the deputy director of a government educational firm in Thiruvananthapuram.

His daughter Asha holds a PhD in pharmacology and works as a scientist with the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Biotechnology.

A refreshing approach

Observers say the main reason for Achuthanandan’s all-pervading popularity is his simplicity and straightforward approach.

In his heyday, Achuthanandan never hesitated to raise his voice whenever he spotted irregularities or breaches of rights.

Achuthanandan, when he was chief minister. (Supplied)

And if any of his positions proved wrong later, he has always been quick to acknowledge it publicly.

Whether it was the water exploitation issue in Plachimada or the intricacies of the multimillion-dollar MNC software war, Achuthanandan was heard with rapt attention because the Kerala voter had confidence in him.

Over the years, he relentlessly pursued corruption cases and went after the mafia that thrived by engaging in illegal businesses involving ganja, sandalwood, and land.

His targets ranged from the sand mafia that ruined Kerala rivers, the sandalwood mafia that robbed Idukki forests, the big plantation companies that encroached on public land, and the tourist resort operators who ravaged Munnar to fill their coffers.

He also targeted sex lords who exploited women and minor girls, and even private hospital owners who engaged in the trading of human organs. They all met their match in this diminutive man.

Political leaders who compromised with these elements for personal safety and growth cynically describe Achuthanandan as a fool who rushes in where angels fear to tread.

With CPI leader Pannyan Raveendran. (Supplied)

“I have gone after several of them… like the owners of the steel smelting factories… the cola factories looting groundwater when people did not have water to drink. So, these forces opposed to me have sent agents here to ensure my votes could be bought over. But the people’s political reasoning cannot be bought like that,” he told this correspondent during the 1996 Assembly election when asked about the free flow of money to ensure his defeat from the Malampuzha constituency.

Achuthanandan’s supporters range from tribals, Dalits, women and youth.

To Indian Marxists, Achuthanandan is one of the last of the galaxy of communist stalwarts, including BT Ranadive, AK Gopalan, and EMS Namboodiripad. His politics was shrewd, but never entertained opportunism.