Theorising a third term for LDF, one couplet at a time

Letters and ideas sit more comfortably on CPI(M) general secretary M. A. Baby’s sleeve than power, though his party has been in power for 10 years in Kerala.

“I would rather say we are in office. Power is with the people,” he said, over a lunch of surmai fish biryani during the midday break from campaigning in central Kerala.

Earlier in the day, he had inaugurated a convention of left cultural activists. Mr. Baby is not comfortable with the idea of him inaugurating it. “I [am] no bigger than anyone of you… Since inauguration is a formality, I am declaring we have all inaugurated this together.”

Mr. Baby believes the battle against communalism lies in the realm of culture. File.
| Photo Credit:
NIRMAL HARINDRAN / THE HINDU

Mr. Baby believes the battle against communalism lies in the realm of culture. “Cultural intervention and intervention in culture,” he said.

The LDF candidate in Thrissur, considered the cultural capital of Kerala, is Alankode Leelakrishnan, a poet. “The first is about the deployment of cultural instruments, poetry, films etc. for progress; the second is about intervening in the cultural behaviour of people — for instance, why should children carry names of their fathers and not of their mothers?”

Thrissur became the first Lok Sabha seat to be won by the BJP in Kerala, in 2024. On Thursday evening, a rally of the BJP candidate in neighbouring Manalur rivalled that of the LDF. “The growth of communal politics represented by the BJP is the biggest challenge for Kerala. Largely, it is non-Left voters that the BJP is attracting, but in some areas even our supporters are tempted,” he said.

Mr. Baby believes that the Congress, his party’s principal rival in Kerala but partner against the BJP in many other parts of the country, does not understand the threat of communal fascism in the country. “Congress opposes the BJP only to the extent that they want power for themselves,” he said.

Mr. Baby moves freely from prose to poetry, and historian Eric Hobsbawm to Malayalam poet Vailoppalli Sreedhara Menon and Valdimir Lenin to make his point. The cultural legacy of Kerala is deeply homegrown, and the ideas of equity and equality are not foreign imports, as Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently implied in the parliamentary debate on Maoism, said Mr. Baby. He cites Ayya Vaikunda Swami, also known as Vaikundar, a 19th-century social reformer from present-day Kerala. “He spoke for social equality and even anticipated socialist ideas. He was born a decade before Karl Marx. When I say this, some of my comrades are uneasy, but the reality is that all cultures carry some yearning for a more just society,” he said.

For the first time in Kerala’s history, the same front and the same Chief Minister have been in office for two consecutive terms and are seeking a third. The Left must stand for change, but in Kerala it is continuity that the party sees virtue in.

“This is about the continuity of Kerala, not of a party or a front. An alternative model that has been developing in the State for decades should not be disrupted. The last ten years saw dramatic progress in that model, and that needs to continue. In the current term, the Pinarayi government eradicated absolute poverty in the State; and now we need to move further in the same direction. That is why we seek a third term.”

The party chief is confident there is no anti-incumbency in the State. “People are anxious to ensure continuity of governance,” he said, but remained non-committal on whether Mr. Vijayan himself would be Chief Minister for a third term. “We always make that decision after the election. The Chief Minister himself has made that very clear.”