The chain of gold scandals that now haunts the CPI(M) can be traced back to a sultry July evening in 2020 at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport.
Published Oct 17, 2025 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 17, 2025 | 9:00 AM
In contemporary Kerala, the very metal that Marxists once condemned has become their political curse.
Synopsis: From the 2020 diplomatic gold smuggling case to the recent Sabarimala gold scandal, the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala has been embroiled in several scams related to gold. Each scandal chips away at the party’s carefully crafted image as a disciplined, ideologically pure political force. In contemporary Kerala, the very metal that Marxists once condemned has become their political curse.
In Kerala’s political theatre, there’s one constant that seems to shadow the CPI(M) — gold. It has evolved into a political albatross hanging around the party’s neck.
From the sensational 2020 diplomatic gold smuggling case with alleged links to the Chief Minister’s Office, to recurring airport smuggling rackets in the party’s bastions and now the explosive Sabarimala gold scandal, the CPI(M)’s stormy relationship with the yellow metal refuses to fade.
Each scandal chips away at the party’s carefully crafted image as a disciplined, ideologically pure political force.
More crucially, it fuels opposition narratives of political patronage, shadow networks, moral decay and most importantly a fresh ammunition ahead of a crucial electoral cycle.
For Marxists, gold has historically been a symbol of capitalist greed — the glittering fetish of bourgeois excess. Karl Marx himself, in Das Kapital, described gold as a “fetish” commodity that underpinned class inequality.
Yet in contemporary Kerala, the very metal that Marxists once condemned has become their political curse.
For a political movement that once saw gold as a symbol of capitalist excess and bourgeois greed, the irony is striking.
The CPI(M), which grew out of these ideological roots, has found itself repeatedly dragged into controversies involving the very metal it once derided.
The chain of gold scandals that now haunts the CPI(M) can be traced back to a sultry July evening in 2020 at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. Customs officials, during a routine inspection, discovered 30 kilograms of 24-carat gold hidden inside a diplomatic baggage addressed to the UAE Consulate.
The consignment, cleverly camouflaged as bathroom fittings and dry fruits, exposed a sophisticated smuggling syndicate with tentacles that reached deep into the state’s power corridors. At the heart of the scandal was Swapna Suresh, a Dubai-based businesswoman with close ties to the UAE mission.
The plot became politically explosive when investigators found links between Swapna and M Sivasankar, then Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and a key figure in Kerala’s IT infrastructure projects. Call records revealed multiple conversations between them just before the seizure.
The revelations triggered a political earthquake.
Sivasankar was suspended, the Enforcement Directorate and National Investigation Agency (NIA) moved in, citing terror financing and money laundering concerns, and opposition parties smelt blood. Over the next few months, the gold seizure ballooned into a full-fledged political scandal.
Swapna, from custody, gave statements alleging that the smuggling syndicate had operated at least 28 times, moving gold worth ₹80 crore. She claimed that funds from these operations had been channelled through hawala networks and linked to the ruling front’s flagship LIFE Mission housing scheme.
She also alleged political patronage at the highest levels, including access to senior CPI(M) figures. The CPI(M) dismissed her allegations as politically motivated, calling Swapna a pawn in a BJP-led conspiracy.
Yet, her claims, coupled with ED investigations and sensational media coverage, cast a long shadow over the Chief Minister’s Office. Over time, the scandal expanded in scope.
Swapna accused party leaders of harassment, claimed to have received a ₹30 crore bribe offer to flee the country, and named individuals close to the Chief Minister’s family. By 2024, the ED had pushed to shift the trial out of Kerala, citing interference.
Though the party termed the probes “politically motivated,” the damage was done: The yellow metal had pierced the party’s ideological armour.
The political storm it stirred still reverberates, as in July 2025, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while launching the BJP’s campaign for the 2025 local body polls, branded it “India’s biggest state-backed gold scam.”
While the diplomatic baggage case exposed the upper echelons of power, the next phase of the gold curse unfolded at the party’s grassroots.
In June 2021, a car crash near Kozhikode Airport killed five men allegedly attempting to ambush a gold carrier transporting 2.23 kg of smuggled bullion. The investigation led to Arjun Ayanki — a CPI(M) social media star with over 40,000 followers — and several DYFI members. The getaway vehicle belonged to a local party expellee.
The incident exposed a darker underbelly: In Kannur, the CPI(M)’s traditional stronghold, cadres and sympathisers had become entangled in a web of gold smuggling, highway ambushes, and parallel networks of profit.
The region, once synonymous with ideological militancy, got linked to “pottikkal” — violent roadside heists of gold carriers. Former insiders claimed that certain local leaders turned a blind eye, if not actively shielded, these criminal networks. The Opposition pounced.
The Congress described Kannur as “the smuggler’s republic.” While then BJP state president K Surendran thundered, “Every road of gold leads to the AKG Centre (CPI(M)’s state office).”
The incidents painted a grim picture of a party struggling to rein in its own lower ranks, with gold fuelling a dangerous parallel economy in its heartland. The political ripples grew sharper in September 2024 when PV Anvar, then an independent MLA supported by the LDF, turned against the ruling front.
In a sensational press meet, he accused senior IPS officer MR Ajith Kumar of protecting smuggling networks. Anvar’s claims of a police–smuggler nexus jolted the government. His most explosive statement linked the smuggling routes to hawala transactions worth over ₹120 crore over five years.
Then came the alleged controversial statement from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. That Malappuram accounted for the highest share of seizures — quickly backfired.
Opposition leaders interpreted it as communal dog-whistling, suggesting the government was shifting blame onto a Muslim-majority district to deflect attention from its own failings. The CPI(M) expelled Anvar from the front, but the damage was already done.
His claims resonated far beyond the Assembly floor, shaking public confidence in the government’s ability to control its law enforcement machinery.
If the diplomatic gold case and Kannur heists eroded the CPI(M)’s credibility over governance and party discipline, the Sabarimala gold scandal struck at the emotional core of Kerala’s society.
In October 2025, the Kerala High Court, acting suo motu, ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the disappearance of four kilograms of gold from the Sabarimala temple’s idol during a 2019 re-plating.
The investigation named CPI(M) leader and former Travancore Devaswom Board president A Padmakumar among the accused. The scandal unfolded during the Global Ayyappa Summit, amplifying its political fallout.
Devotee donations meant for divine adornment had disappeared under the watch of a Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) controlled by an LDF government.
The Opposition accused the CPI(M) of presiding over “temple looting,” framing the scandal as yet another example of the party’s moral decay. The UDF framed it as “temple looting by a godless regime.” The BJP, invoking Sabarimala’s cultural symbolism, accused the Left of “systemic desecration.
Even some former Devaswom officials hinted at “political protection” enabling the theft. For a party historically sceptical of religious institutions, the irony was hard to miss.
The CPI(M) suddenly found itself having to reassure devotees and temple stakeholders — constituencies it had rarely needed to court — that the probe would be transparent.
It also forced the party into a politically uncomfortable position: defending its control over religious boards in a state where faith remains a potent political currency.
Kerala’s gold obsession is not merely cultural — it’s economic. For over a decade, the state’s four international airports have served as the country’s main entry points for gold smuggling, with an estimated ₹1,000 crore worth of contraband passing through annually.
The shadow gold economy fuels hawala networks, political funding, and localised criminal gangs. High import duties created fertile ground for a parallel economy powered by hawala channels and under-the-radar syndicates.
The Union government’s decision to slash gold import duty from 15 percent to 6 percent in 2024 dented the smuggling business. But rather than disappearing, the networks adapted.
Investigators have found increasing linkages between gold smuggling, cryptocurrency-based laundering, and local criminal rackets.
Taken together, these scandals have inflicted a sustained blow to the CPI(M)’s ideological core.
The party that once prided itself on moral clarity and organisational discipline is now perceived as struggling to distance itself from criminal networks, compromised governance, and accusations of political protection. Its opponents have been quick to capitalise.
The Congress has portrayed the party as having lost its moral compass, while the BJP has used the scandals to advance its long-cherished narrative of corruption under the Left.
Internally, the CPI(M) has responded with the familiar playbook: Expel members, deny high-level complicity, and frame central agency interventions as politically motivated.
Yet, none of these tactics has fully erased the public perception that gold has become the party’s soft spot — its Achilles heel in a volatile political landscape.
As the state heads into a season of local body polls and prepares for the 2026 Assembly election, the CPI(M) faces a trust deficit that it cannot ignore.
These gold-related controversies are not isolated episodes; they have accumulated into a pattern that undermines the party’s self-image as a disciplined, ideologically anchored movement.
More crucially, the scandals have helped opponents frame a simple, damaging narrative: the CPI(M), once the scourge of the wealthy and corrupt, has itself been ensnared by the allure of gold.
Whether through diplomatic channels, temple boards, or its own strongholds, the yellow metal keeps circling back to the party’s door. For a party that grew out of Marx’s warnings against the fetishism of gold and capital, the symbolism could not be more cruel.
The yellow metal, once a distant emblem of capitalist greed, has become a political curse that refuses to let go.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that as election season heats up, opposition parties may taunt the Left with a biting one-liner: The comrades’ proud red star (in the party flag) now glints with gold dust.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
