Opposition leader V. S. Achuthanandan being flanked by K.K. Lathika MLA and CPI leader Pannyan Raveendran while protesting outside the Secretariat on Friday. Rinku Raj Mattancheriyil The Opposition protest in the Kerala Assembly Friday while the Governor was delivering his address brought me back to the realities of Kerala with a rude shock. It was a rather painful reminder that nothing has changed here in the several years that I had spent outside the state.
For one, Achuthanandan's speech had the same hackneyed rhythm that he always had. The Opposition protest, after grabbing eyeballs nationwide during last year's state budget with its violent contempt for the institutions of democracy, was muted, but predictable. Nothing had changed in the state's politics in all these years when other states have made much progress in creating and distributing wealth.
The state is at the cusp of a change of government, but the old actors and themes are still going through those predictable and monotonous motions -- except that a raft of television channels now add an artificial urgency with their screaming, breathless reportage. The issues competing for people's attention haven't changed either: from Suryanelli to ice-cream parlour to now Saritha.
Why is no one talking about job and wealth creation? About environmental damage and sustainability, about industrial development? Why is no one talking about education? (Perhaps there is no other event like the attack on T.P. Sreenivasan by a street goon that shows how dangerous it is to talk about these issues when everyone prefers status quo.)
I feel so sad that the state's political parties have not reinvented themselves in all these years and adopted a constructive, holistic vision for development and sustainability. Instead, they have specialised in creating storms in a tea cup and the people here are – amazingly – content to engross themselves in the tiny whirlpools so created.
Take the same people out of Kerala and they will talk with utter contempt about the politics and politicians here. But inside the state, they are like meek kittens. With such ideal subjects, Achuthanandan,Oommen Chandy and other leaders need have no fear of becoming irrelevant.
The BJP is a new factor in the state's politics, but how much difference it will make is still far from clear. It could still be a UDF or LDF government in the state secretariat after May. That means the same old actors will be holding centre-stage again. And the same old issues will continue to be trotted out before the media – in an unending procession of fighting shadows.
And the average Keralite, once known for his/her liberal and progressive ideas, will be glued to TV screens and social media, endlessly debating these shadow plays.
Even penning this has become horribly monotonous. God save God's Own Country.
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