Kerala polls: On road at age 92, 200 km a day, for CPM knows VS is still the man crowd wants

The Nedumangad meeting on Tuesday was the culmination of VS’s state-wide campaign that began on April 20 from Uduma in Kasaragode. Since then, he has logged an average 200 km daily for 14 days, covering 62 constituencies across the state’s 14 districts. On an average, he has addressed at least four public meetings, where men, women and children, young and old, crowded to hear him. The gruelling schedule may appear normal in an election season but for the fact that this campaigner is 92. In fact, the VS campaign has been a blockbuster show running to a full house since April.

On Tuesday, VS is running late by an hour for the Nedumangad meeting. CPI candidate C Divakaran, a former minister in the VS cabinet, is new to the constituency and faces a tough contest. The incumbent MLA, Palode Ravi of the Congress, has deep roots in the constituency. Divakaran clearly counts on VS to rally voters of a constituency that has mainly elected CPI candidates

With VS held up in Thiruvananthapuram’s traffic, the crowd is engaged by a popular speaker of the CPI, Unnikrishnan. Mobiles in the crowd ring frequently and the answer one overhears is nearly the same: “He is yet to arrive. He is on the way.” Unnikrishnan concludes and the local candidate takes over. He is almost apologetic: “I know you are here to see our dear VS and let me talk to you till he arrives.” As he begins, a roar goes up. The pilot jeep has been spotted. VS is here: the buzz spreads in the crowd, and everyone is up. As the white car comes in, the crowd surges close to the stage, where the car is expected to halt. A young man, standing at the head of the crowd, raises his fist as well as a full-throated cry: “Kanne, Karale VSee, Dheerathayode Nayicholoo” (Our eyes, our heart, VS lead us from the front). It is now a roar as the crowd, young and old, repeats after him. Clad in his trademark white jubba and mundu, VS steps out and the roar becomes defeaning. Cameras fire and mobiles are out. The leader starts for the stage as the crowd makes way after repeated requests from the organisers. People shower flowers and refuse to sit as VS heads to the podium and takes the mike.

Traffic on the road has come to a halt with more people flowing in. Buses wait with passengers peering out of windows to spot VS, who begins with the day’s big news story, the rape and murder of a young girl near Ernakulam. CM Oommen Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala get the rap and he moves on to corruption scandals. Encouraged by the crowd, perhaps, his voice reaches a new pitch. Punctuated with his trademark pauses and phrases — he tends to stretch the words for emphasis — he talks about Prime Minister Modi, Gujarat killings, Hindutva politics. Congress leader A K Antony, who had a day earlier called for a collective effort to keep the BJP out of Kerala, is not spared either. Tell that to Chandy and make him fall in line, he says. It is a reference to rumours that the BJP may transfer votes to the Congress in some constituencies to defeat the Left.

As the prayer call from the local mosque goes out, VS pauses. Half an hour of direct talk and the leader winds up, asking Nedumangad to vote for the CPI’s sickle and paddy sheaf. People are back on their feet and the sloganeering begins: “Kanne, karale, VSee”. Beaming at them, VS steps into the car and drives off. Minutes later, the crowd too starts to disperse.

For more than a decade, VS has been the crowd-puller for the CPM. Even candidates who have attacked him in the party and in public plead for his presence at their rallies.

A journalist who has tracked him for some years says it is because VS says what people want to hear. He does not temper opinions to reflect the party’s short-term tactics. There is no weight of ideology or strategy: the talk is direct and in favour of the voiceless. The corrupt are named and counted, there is no apprehension of defamation. His critics say it is demagoguery, but that’s what counts with his admirers, who are perhaps more outside the CPM than within. Not surprisingly, many who approach politics emotionally count him as their voice. His mannerisms and style of speech, a throwback to an era when there were no mikes and speakers depended on their voice or megaphone, were once objects of ridicule; now the crowds love them. And at 92, he remains a youth icon.

Public intellectual and writer N S Madhavan says there is no leader as charismatic as VS. He always takes a popular line against the party line, if these are in conflict. Moreover, he was the first leader to talk of green politics. A K Gopalan was adored by the public, but he represented the charisma of a collective force, Madhavan adds.

E M S Namboodiripad and E K Nayanar were popular speakers for different reasons. If EMS sparked debates and invariably set the election agenda with his intellectual interventions, Nayanar used wit and sarcasm. VS banks on moral outrage and his long record in politics as an organiser to leader to connect with the crowds. In the past two decades, he has been on the road, responding to popular struggles and causes. He gained the image of a crusader, fighting lone battles for the disempowered. It is the approach that has worked even if the results have been inconsistent.

VS is a brand that is now as big as the CPM itself. The party knows it, as is evident from the gruelling schedule it has drawn out for a man in his eighth decade in politics. VS is game. A disciplined life routine, healthy food habits, yoga, regular walk has helped his body cope with the stress. This season, the only extra input to the diet is palm candy mixed with cloves. It helps him nurture his voice.

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