Learn another lesson from Kerala

The recovery by the party in the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections was extraordinary. It won 19 of the 20 seats and now that the 2006 state elections are round the corner, the Congress-led UDF is running around in circles wondering what damage Karunakaran may cause by his total rebellion.

Karunakaran posters indicate his preferred Congress hierarchy 8212; Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Karunakaran, his son Murleedharan. No Rajiv or Sonia Gandhi who are on official Congress posters. Before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Murleedharan did add Nehruism and socialism to his rhetoric. Some friends at AKG Bhavan got into a huddle. Nehruism, after all, was not an untouchable quantity in a politically arid era when 8216;8216;isms8217;8217; are globally at a discount.

But Murleedharan showed his fickleness on the eve of Lok Sabha elections, crossed over to the UDF, and they were all routed. Meanwhile the ponderous, Hamlet-like A.K. Antony has given way to a more dynamic Oommen Chandy.

Vijayan is sanguine. His biggest success has been in areas controlled by the Muslim League. The Muslim youth are turning to the Left. This has lessons for all those terrorised by terrorism everywhere.

Since the fall of the Babri Masjid in 1992, Muslims have been disenchanted with the Muslim League because of its helpless dependence on the Congress, which to this day is seen to have collaborated with the demolition. It astonishes someone from the north that the Babri Masjid is still an issue among Kerala8217;s Muslims. 8216;8216;This is largely because of the Muslim League8217;s mobilisation around religious issues8217;8217; says Abdel Kader, a private tourist operator, 8216;8216;It mobilises votes on issues where the Congress is seen to be the culprit and it then aligns itself with the Congress for power8217;8217;. 8216;8216;The disenchantment with Muslim League leaders is on a host of other issues, including corruption8217;8217;, says Islam Ahmad, a college lecturer.

But the most important reason for the Muslim youth8217;s Leftward swing in the old Muslim League enclave is the 8216;8216;political mobilisation8217;8217; of this vote as opposed to 8216;8216;its communal mobilisation8217;8217;.

8216;8216;Traditionally, the temper of states like Kerala and West Bengal has been anti-imperialist8217;8217; says Vijayan. 8216;8216;Imperialist aggression in places like Iraq, its total support to the situation in Palestine, has generated great anger across the globe, but more so among Muslim youth8217;8217;, says Ahmad. 8216;8216;You suffocate this anger within the narrow confines of a religious group like the Muslim League and you spawn hatcheries for terrorists8217;8217; he continues. 8216;8216;You provide this anger with political ventilation, as the Left has done, and you end up strengthening the anti-imperialist platform8217;8217;, says Govindan Pillai, a CPM worker.

The Left has mounted countless rallies against the Iraq war. The result has been historic. The Left wrested the Manjeri seat in Malapuram district from the Muslim League in the last LS elections. It reflects on Kerala8217;s eclectic politics that an international issue, with potential for communalism locally, was secularised, given some deft political handling.

This has not happened overnight. During the first Gulf war 1990-91, E.M.S. Namboodiripad won 13 out of Kerala8217;s 14 district councils on a platform of third world solidarity. Imagine, local bodies elections being won on an international issue!

Unfortunately, since the collapse of the Soviet Union the political space for an expression of anger against those who perpetrate Iraq, Palestine or Chechnya has shrunk. In the Muslim world there never were any political ventilators. Implosion has been delayed by history. But in democracies, major parties these days are sometimes as different from each other as tweedledum is from tweedledee.

What, may I ask, is the difference between Labour and the Conservatives on Iraq? Give George Galloway some political space and he may create conditions to cushion the anger of those who are blowing themselves up and causing liberal structures to be dismantled by those swearing to preserve them. Learn a lesson from Kerala.