JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, ChitJNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar's speech he delivered at the campus soon after being released from jail is being hailed as the manifesto of the secular, democratic forces against the Modi-led BJP government at the Centre. Interestingly, there were reports that the CPM had found in Kanhaiya, the orator, a strong campaigner for the Left parties in the coming state polls, though he belongs to AISF which is the CPI's student body.
Kanhaiya's call for "freedom within the country" from poverty and autocratic forces is something that not only the Communist parties but all other secular parties also have endorsed. But for the Communist parties, there is something more that Kanhaiya's speech urges them to look into.
Kanhaiya keeps on calling 'neel salam' (blue salute) along with 'lal salam' (red salute). While the 'red' does not need an explanation among the communists, the 'blue' must have sounded something strange for many of them. The 'blue' here stands for the ideals of the Ambedkarites, in whom many see the future of Indian politics.
The country's political spectrum has reached a state where no party, whatever be its ideological persuasion be, can go ahead without addressing the issues raised by the Dalits and Adivasis.
The thought that it's high time that Marxism and Ambedkarism joined hands is a trending topic among many groups of intelligentsia and academia.
Similar discourses must have been so vibrant among the JNUites that the sight of a red cup and a blue cup, which he found together in the jail, instantly remained him of the new brand of proletarian politics which he claims to stand for.
Whether this idea will reach the ranks and files of the red parties anytime soon is something which needs to be looked at carefully. The ideologues can raise a lot of historic and sociological reasons to substantiate their arguments for and against the politics of identity, but what needs to be changed more importantly is the casteist mentality, which is deeply rooted in the people's psyche.
The latest incident of the attack on the autorickshaw of Chithralekha, a Dalit woman in Kannur, by alleged CPM workers, exemplifies the need for the party to urge its members to understand and act according to the changing times. The attack on Chithralekha was only the latest one in a series.
It has been over a decade since Chithralekha started facing ostracism from other drivers, most of them belonging to the CPM-affiliated CITU.
Casteist remarks were hurled at her, her auto was burned, she was subject to character assassination and along with her husband, she was forced to flee her hometown in the last 10 years.
She had been on strike since October 2014 and she called it off when Chief Minister Oommen Chandy assured her that she would be rehabilitated in another town in Kannur district -- a promise yet to be fulfilled.
The troublesome years have made the woman the face of the Dalit politics, which accuses CPM of being highly casteist. The charges have been debated on a number of occasions and a lot of intellectual exercise has been done over the clash between class politics and caste politics.
But it is high time that the party top brass stopped looking at it as a local issue and intervened to bring an end to it. This is only one such 'local' issue where casteism plays the villain.
The incident of a Dalit woman being denied the chance to become panchayat president in Alappuzha district, despite the party district committee ordering in her favour is another similar story which unfolded in recent times.
Kanhaiya must be visiting Kerala in near future, even though he is unlikely to campaign for the LDF in the coming polls. When will his 'red cup + blue cup' theory come to and stay in the state? (The views expressed in the article are highly personal.)
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