V.S. Achuthanandan helped transform socio-economic, political landscape of Kerala, says Antony

Veteran Congress leader and former Defence Minister A.K. Antony stated that the late V.S. Achuthanandan had played a pivotal role in transforming the socio-economic and political landscape of Kerala, when the vestiges of exploitative feudalism remained a fact of life for the labouring classes. 

Mr. Antony, who paid his last respects to Mr. Achuthanandan at the old AKG Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, told reporters that as a school student in the early 1960s at Cherthala, he used to wait beside paddy fields to listen to the communist leader address agricultural workers. 

Mr. Antony rejected any comparison between himself and Mr. Achuthanandan. “Mr. Achuthanandan’s life and struggles and the torture and beatings he endured in the vanguard of the communist agitations for bonded agriculture workers in Kuttanad are unequalled and historical,” he said.

Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan, who joined the Communist Party at the age of 17 in 1940, was second only to T.V. Thomas, K.R. Gouri, and R. Sugathan in the party’s hierarchy in central Kerala.

In the grip of poverty

“In the early 50s, poverty plagued Cherthala, Ambalappuzha and Kuttanad in Alappuzha district. I remember seeing hundreds of women making a beeline for the Thaneermukkam harbour at dawn. Their employers paid them slave wages. Many returned home late at night after enduring humiliation and exploitation with a small bunch of tapioca for the family dinner,” he said. 

Mr. Antony said Mr. Achuthanandan led the Communist Party’s successful struggle for better wages and restored the self-esteem of the women by unionising them and placing himself at their head. 

Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan was the spearhead of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] in the Assembly when EMS Namboodiripad was the Leader of the Opposition. “VS, Balanandan, K.R. Gouri and M.V. Raghavan were the CPI(M)‘s firebrands,” he added. 

Mr. Antony said that Mr. Achuthanandan was seen generally as a martinet in the CPI(M) and a dogmatic party apparatchik with a limited public profile before he became the Leader of the Opposition.

Champion of forgotten causes

“I watched with amazement when Mr. Achuthanandan emerged as the champion of forgotten causes, including women’s rights and environmental protection, human rights, rights of sexual minorities, wetland conservation and became an idol of the masses, perhaps comparable only to A.K. Gopalan,” Mr. Antony said. 

When Mr. Achuthanandan became Chief Minister in 2006, he became a champion for State development. “I was the Defence Minister, and Mr. Achuthanandan sought my assistance for making the Kochi metro a reality and for security clearance for the Vizhinjam port. I always went and met him at the Kerala House whenever Mr Achuthanandan came to New Delhi,” he added. 

‘A mind of his own’

Mr. Antony said Mr. Achuthanandan had a strong moral compass and a mind of his own, which, he said, were not always subservient to party diktat. 

 “Perhaps, few remember that as a political prisoner, Mr. Achuthanandan donated his blood for soldiers during the Indo-China conflict, raising a few eyebrows and leaving behind a few ruffled feathers in the CPI(M),” Mr. Antony said. 

“He was the strongest when in the Opposition, and he troubled us no end. But Mr. Achuthanandan never let politics creep into a personal relationship. An era has ended,” Mr. Antony said.