McCarthyism hounded the innocent

Having been thrown out with a `yellow card’, all the doors they knocked for employment were closed. Besides, they had also become personae non grata in their own houses and villages since everybody thought they were dismissed from the services for committing some serious offence.

The miseries of thousands of discharged servicemen continued even after the nation witnessed a sea change.

Communism became an acceptable term and many a Communist, who was branded as a Chinese agent and put behind bars for treason, became either a Minister or a successful parliamentarian. Living in penury as they are today, the hapless service personnel, thrown out of employment for no mistake of theirs, still continue their struggle for justice.

According to Komban Narayanan, president of the Discharged Servicemen’s Association (DSA), more than 3,000 people from Kerala and West Bengal were discharged from the defence services based on the special verification reports, which branded them as Communist sympathisers. Kannur and Kozhikode accounted for more than 90 per cent of the nearly 2,000 men from Kerala who lost their jobs on account of the double verification introduced in the two States soon after the India-China war in 1962.

The purpose of the double verification, or special verification as it was known in those days, was to keep Communists away from the services under the Central Government fearing that they will help China in every possible manner.

Unfortunately, the State Police and the Central Secret Service that were entrusted with the job sought the help of the local Congressmen, who gave the latter a golden opportunity to punish whomsoever they wanted to.All of them had successfully completed training when they were sent out with a discharge certificate, which said “Service no longer required. Unsuitable for further retention.”

P P Kunhiraman of Kannur was about to begin his career as a pilot in the Indian Air Force when he was served with a discharge certificate. He went to Mumbai to look for a joband from there to Chennai, but nobody was ready to give him a job thanks to the discharge certificate which said he was unsuitable for any job.There are many others like Kunhiraman who had to take up the job of a porter or a beedi worker in order to make a living.