Velikkakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan, better known as Comrade VS, is no more. Although he has become a part of history, the iconic communist leader will be remembered for his relentless struggle against injustice. The media that had once painted him in a different colour is busy celebrating his death in a way of mourning.
Even social media is occupied, as Comrade VS had been a cult figure in Kerala politics. He was known as a crusader for the protection of nature, women, children, and the deprived. Whether everybody agrees or not, he was a fighter until his last breath. Red salute to Comrade VS, who was a true Communist to the core.

As a journalist, I had a better opportunity to watch VS from close quarters. He remained the most misunderstood and misinterpreted leader for a long time. Although one of the founding members of the CPM, he initially had no mass appeal. He was not a crowd-puller like party stalwarts AK Gopalan, EM Sankaran Namboodirpad and EK Nayanar. His adamant stand on various political and social issues also gave him a Stalinist image. He was blamed for the expulsion of firebrand Communist leaders MV Raghavan and KR Gowri Amma, though his role in the disciplinary actions was minimal.

He also drew flak for capturing control of the party's state unit by ensuring the defeat of CITU nominees at the 1996 CPM state conference held in Palakkad. He was criticised by his own party men for his public statements on Shariat law when the CPM-led Left Democratic Front lost the elections held during that period.

The veteran Communist was declared an enemy of the farmers when the anti-reclamation drive launched by the Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union under his leadership at Mankompu in Alapuzha district in 1996 morphed into a crop destruction drive. Achuthanandan’s fight within the party's state unit against what he termed as ‘revisionist tendencies’ is no secret. It led to factionalism in the state unit and finally culminated in his removal from the Politburo along with the then state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. While Pinarayi Vijayan later returned to the decision-making body, VS could never make it.

Our first interaction was in the form of an interview during the 1989 Lok Sabha elections. He claimed the LDF would sweep the elections by winning all 20 seats in Kerala. An impossible feat, considering the prevailing political situation at that time. "It's true that the LDF is in power. But how can you claim to win all 20 sets, given that the Indian Union Muslim League, a major partner of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Indian National Congress, were all set to repeat victories in Ponnani and Manjeri. And also with K Karunakaran, the most cunning political leader of Kerala, rumoured to play any tricks to ensure the victory of his son K Muraleedharan, who was contesting his first election from Kozhikode," I asked. VS was annoyed. He got up, saying, “You will see when the results come.” When the results came, UDF won 17 seats, leaving just three to the LDF.

The transformation of VS into a mass leader and a darling of the media and the public happened after the 2001 assembly elections when he became the Opposition leader in Kerala. Although much of the credit for making VS a leader of the masses goes to his then-secretary, KM Shaajahan, the veteran leader also played a crucial role in making him acceptable to the public. Shedding his Stalinist image, a new VS emerged as a crusader against corruption, while also becoming the protector of nature, women, the poor, and the underprivileged.

This image prompted the public to cry foul and his supporters in the party to take out a protest march to the AKG Centre in 2006 when VS was denied a ticket to contest that year's assembly elections. Soon, the party's central leadership intervened, and VS was allowed to contest. He won the election with a thumping majority and became the chief minister of Kerala, a post he had previously lost due to an unexpected defeat in 1996. The rest is history.

However, as Milan Kundera observed in his famous novel, 'The Book of Laughter and Forgetting', one cannot be certain about history and memories, as they are often altered to suit the propaganda machine of the rulers. The Sangh Parivar regime in India is busy rewriting history. The Communists had done it before. The big question is how Comrade VS be introduced to posterity. A true communist or a renegade. Time and tide will tell.
(The writer is a senior political journalist in Kerala)