The Left feast of contradictions

Ajayan

# Ajayan | If compromise were an art and swallowing one’s own words a political sport, the CPM in Kerala would be the undisputed virtuoso. Remember the grandiloquent declarations - the prophet’s hair dismissed as “body waste”, a bishop castigated for calling a departed party leader believer, fiery gender-equality crusades at Sabarimala, Hindu gods reduced to myths, students’ attire turned battlegrounds for belief and the relentless purging of “religion-tainted pseudo-science” from classrooms. The catalogue of high-decibel righteousness stretches on - a parade of contradictions worthy of its own museum.

The latest twist in the CPM’s political gymnastics is its sudden acceptance of the PM SHRI programme for school education. Till not long ago, this was denounced as a vehicle of “obscurantism and unscientific thought”, a Trojan horse for the Sangh Parivar’s ideology. Yet, without a mention in the Cabinet and brushing aside dissent within the ruling LDF, the party hurried to sign the MoU, ostensibly lured by funds, though perhaps more by the fear of displeasing the Centre, with several skeletons rattling in the closet. The CPI, ever the poster-child of “weak firmness”, quietly objects, while the CPM’s once-thunderous objections to privatization and ideological intrusion dissolved into convenient silence. Principles, it seems, are negotiable when survival and fiscal incentives collide.

With elections looming, even the average voter can spot the theatre of compromise. This sudden flexibility stems less from conviction than from fear — fear stoked by the long tail of scandals dogging those in power. From SFIO scrutiny of Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter’s business venture and an ED notice to his son, to a High Court-ordered CBI probe into Chief Principal Secretary KM Abraham after the earlier aide Sivasankar’s imprisonment - the list unspools further: the languishing gold smuggling probe, the Wadakkanchery Life Mission money-laundering case and the Karuvannur bank scam whose culprits are an open secret even among party loyalists. In such a climate, crawling through compromises while proclaiming defiance becomes less an act of governance than one of self-preservation. A Central shield, after all, is worth a thousand principles.

Now come the Sabarimala gold heist revelations - conveniently timed just after the party’s attempt to anoint itself as the saviour of Ayyappa devotees. The disclosures have hurled the CPM into disarray, for if the investigative net is cast with even modest sincerity, the number of comrades caught within it could well stretch from shrine to Secretariat.

SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan and Kerala CM P Vijayan

A rewind through the party’s political contortions reveals just how deftly ideology bends in the pursuit of power. The same leadership that once hurled “wretched creature” at a bishop for saying the late Mathai Chacko was a believer now smiles benignly when community strongman Vellappally Natesan calls Chief Minister Pinarayi a man of faith. The irony deepens -  both men sharing a car enroute to the Ayyappa Sanghamam, a grand reversal to the “Renaissance Wall” once built to champion women’s entry into Sabarimala. If the bishop drew wrath, Vellappally, notorious for his communal tirades and foul-mouthed theatrics, was celebrated as Kerala’s great luminary. And party followers now sing paeans for this leader.

One step forward, two - or when convenient, three - steps back seems the new rhythm of governance. The dizzying pace of U-turns on issues like the hijab, enough to shame a chameleon changing hues for survival, exposes the erosion of conviction. From going back on change in school timings to appease sectarian interests to  bending before community lobbies over appointments for the differently abled, the list of capitulations grows longer.

Add to this the government’s cheerful toast to the liquor lobby - the Excise Minister planning a grand long-term abkari policy to suit the interest of big players while burying the once-noble slogan of weaning Kerala off the bottle. The late Innocent and KPAC Lalitha, who lent their voices to that campaign as loyal CPM supporters, would surely turn in their graves to see how spectacularly they were betrayed. But then, in this political theatre, every principle has its price - and votes, it seems, are the highest bidder.

The party that once preached fire now dines on the embers of its own ideals - raising glasses not to change, but to survival. Mao said, “Revolution is not a dinner party.” Yet in Kerala’s political kitchen, it has become precisely that - lavish, selective and spiced generously with hypocrisy.