Just a day ago, Left dissident and former minister G Sudhakaran had a stern rebuke for the CPM in the Kerala Assembly. “History does not speak of a single instance where catcalls and wolf whistles had achieved social change,” Sudhakaran said, a reference to the CPM’s public intolerance for dissidents.
On Wednesday, another Left dissident, T K Govindan Master, told the Assembly what such hooting of dissidents can do to the CPM. Govindan, who trounced CPM’s P K Syamala by over 12,551 votes, was heckled by CPM workers at Malapattam in Kannur during a booth visit on polling day. And later, the car in which he came to the swearing-in ceremony of the UDF government on May 18 was pelted with stones.
Govindan Master told the Assembly on Wednesday that he was not sure whether the CPM was earnest about understanding the real reasons behind the failure.
“Whenever the CPM had lost, it has made a show of introspection. I see the latest exercise as just one of these fake internal post-failure exercises,” he said.
Govindan Master was participating in the discussion on the ‘Motion of Thanks to the Governor’s Address’ in the Assembly on Wednesday.
The former CPM veteran said that the party had lost in citadels like Payyannur and Taliparamba. “Payyannur is the CPM’s greatest stronghold, not just in Kerala but in the whole of Kerala,” he said. “As for Taliparamba, it is made up of Morazha and Bakkalam, and it also includes Arakkal’s Kayaralam, Kunhakkamma’s Kandakkai, Paadikkunnu and Kavumbayi hero A Kunhikkannan’s Malapattam. And in this Taliparamba, the Left lost,” he said.
Govindan Master mockingly said that during the CPM’s stocktaking exercise, certain experts came up with the hypothesis that the loss was the result of secret directives given from the mosque. “The Kannur district secretary (K K Ragesh) said that Taliparamba witnessed the wild dance of minority fundamentalism,” Govindan Master said.
“Is that the truth,” he asked and himself gave what he thought was the correct answer. “It was the communists who voted against the party in Taliparamba and Payyannur,” he said.
He said it happened because of the CPM’s nose-in-the-sky attitude. “I will not say that the previous LDF government had not done anything. But still, why did the LDF shrink to just 35 seats and the UDF swelled to 102 seats. If you want a reason, I would say that the CPM had crushed democracy. The leadership was blinded by power and refused to listen to the voices from the ground,” Govindan Master said.
He then had a word of advice for the CPM. “Put an end to your intolerance. They mobilised people to boo at me publicly. But you should look at the votes I received in the very booth (in Malapattam) they booed me. I received a huge majority in that booth. The CPM should not forget that in a CPM bastion like Malapattam, my opponent’s lead had fallen to just 600. So was the case with Mayyil and Morazha. And in Anthoor, from where both the CPM state secretary (M V Govindan) and the candidate (Syamala) hail, the CPM had lost over 5000 votes,” he said, and added: “All of this was the price you paid for your intolerance.”
