Tolerant, liberal, inclusive, non-elitist… one could reel off a string of sobriquets which are generally used to describe those opposed to Right-wing politics. Therefore, in Kerala both the Left parties and the Congress-led political plank vie for these honours. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of course, scoffs at such posturing but then between the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M))-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), a bulk of the political space in Kerala is pretty much sewn up.
Nevertheless, there is hardly any love lost between the two fronts. All that changed recently, when the polarised political dispensations took a shine to each other and in a rare act of bonhomie closed ranks while opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and passing a joint resolution in the assembly on December 31, demanding its rollback.
The state had put on hold all initiatives associated with National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) when dozens of protest meetings and marches erupted against the CAA. The police was not expected to use force unlike in many other states, given the rare LDF-UDF unity.
However, the script began going awry when Ayesha Renna, one of the popular faces of the anti-CAA protests at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia, managed to rub the comrades the wrong way when she demanded the Pinarayi Vijayan government to release of students arrested for protesting against the CAA in Kerala. Reports emerged that she was heckled and forced by the CPI(M) and members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) to apologize for her criticism against the state government at the meeting at Kondotty, in Malappuram district, on December 28. She, however, refused to budge.
Was it a case of the local party workers getting riled by Renna’s attempt to paint the state and central government with the same brush of intolerance against criticism? The decision to keep her out of future anti-CAA rallies in the state seems to suggest that. Thus, this could be brushed aside as a case of the natural fear mainstream politicians’ have of fringe activists stealing the limelight.
The fact is that the state government has not bothered to come out with an explainer, thus distancing itself from the taunt of intolerance. In any way there should not have been a demand for apology just because she criticised the Pinarayi government.
This leads to the question as to whether there is a pattern to this newfound rigidity that is seen of late taking roots in the Marxist party.
Clearly, it has to be taken in conjunction with the bewilderingly strong aversion of the CI(M) for the Maoists of any hue, much to the disenchantment of their brothers in arms, the Communist Party of India (CPI). The narrative that is emerging, at least in Kerala, is that of a cadre-based party is in no way ready to be confused with the ‘diluted’ ideologies of the Congress.
Therein lays the rationale behind the sudden distaste shown by the comrades for some of the arguably radical elements in the Muslim community with whom till recently the CPI(M) had no qualms in aligning for political gains.
With state elections just over a year away, the CPI(M) seems to be going all out for political gains by shunning the very fringe groups that once were feeder units for the Marxist party, as the numbers no longer favour their proximity. Mobilisation of sentiment against the CAA with shouts of “azadi” is fine, as long as the party does not have any truck with religious fundamentalists. Quite a throwback from the days when the likes of Abdul Nasser Madani and Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musaliyar were open allies of the CPI(M) leaders.
No reason to be overtly surprised when political expediency takes on the garb of realpolitik.
Vinod Mathew is a senior journalist based in Kochi. Views are personal.
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