In the second general election in 1957 something so startling happened that it instantly became an international sensation. In Kerala at that time called Indias problem state by one and all the undivided Communist Party of India won the state assembly poll,thus becoming the first-ever communist formation anywhere in the world to come to power through a free and fair election. The surprise and excitement over this soon yielded place to worry more in the outside world than within the country,at least initially.
A professor at Singapore University wrote a learned tome forecasting that Kerala would be for the Indian communists what Yenan was to the Chinese Communist Party. From their bastion in the southwest corner the Indian Reds would sweep across their country just as Maos followers had done in theirs,starting from the caves of Yenan. At Nehrus press conference,a visibly alarmed foreign correspondent asked what he would do if,as seemed likely,the communists won the parliamentary election,too. If that misfortune overtakes us,we would cope with it. You need not be worried unduly,he replied.
During his election speeches,particularly in Kerala and West Bengal,he had sharply attacked the communists for their penchant for violence and for being guided from outside. In one these speeches that I covered,he went so far as to declare that the communists were absolutely and completely out of place in India. But after the electoral verdict in Kerala went in their favour,he took the position expected of him: that he and his government would cooperate with the first non-Congress state government as long as the communist ministry,headed by the much-respected EMS Namboodiripad,acted according to the Constitution. On this score,EMS (as he was popularly known) could not have been more accommodating. In Nehrus own words,the chief minister had put on the most proper and decorous constitutional clothing. At the prime ministers suggestion that plantations owned by foreigners should not be nationalised,EMS retracted from the promise he had made during the election campaign.
However,Nehrus attitude towards Keralas communist ministry was not shared by several of his senior colleagues in the government and the party,indeed by the entire Congress right wing. Govind Ballabh Pant,Union home minister,was acutely suspicious of communist designs,and immediately sent a warning to Trivandrum (now Thiruvananthapuram) against its decision to commute death sentences and release all political prisoners. Even more hostile to the communist ministry was Keralas governor,K. Ramakrishna Rao,a conservative Congressman. The divergence between the prime minister and the right wing increased. Some of the Kerala ministrys actions,such as supporting the plantation workers during their illegal strike displeased even Nehru.
The crunch came,however,over the two main planks of the communist governments essentially moderate agenda. The state assembly passed an Education Bill and a Land Reforms Bill,which touched off a rising tide of opposition to the Namboodiripad government. The church,the Muslim League and the Nair Society all owned a large number of lucrative private schools and colleges as well as large landholdings. They formed a joint front and started a virulent agitation not only to get the controversial bills withdrawn but also to overthrow the communist government. Nehru wanted to resolve these differences through persuasion and the legal process. For example,when the Education Bill reached the president for his assent,he referred it to the Supreme Court for its advisory opinion. The communist ministry denounced this and even criticised the president. This annoyed even Nehru. But he continued to resist suggestions for Central intervention in Kerala. However,the Congress unit in the state had jumped on the joint fronts bandwagon despite Nehrus advice to the contrary.
To cut a long and complicated story short,a stage arrived when law and order in Kerela seemed to spin out of control. Violent crowds went on the rampage. The police resorted to firing. Heated rhetoric on both sides escalated. There was absolutely no meeting ground between the communist ministry and the joint front which rejected Namoodiripads offer,made on Nehrus advice,of discussion on the entire Education Bill,not just its disputed clauses.
Slowly Nehru came to the conclusion that the only way out of the disastrous situation in Kerala was for Namoodiripad to put the two bills to the test of public opinion and therefore hold fresh elections. To persuade EMS he invited the chief minister to Mashobra near Shimla where he was holidaying. Namboodiripad declined the PMs advice,and argued that to force a fresh election on the only non-Congress government in the country was discriminatory,and could only lead to the conclusion that this would be the fate of all state governments other than those of the Congress.
Still Nehru remained reluctant to use the Centres extraordinary powers to get rid of the communist state government even though he was displeased by its ways. However,those who had hitherto failed to make him change his mind gained sudden and substantial strength. For Indira Gandhi,who had just become Congress president,favoured their point of view. It was she who persuaded her father to overcome his qualms. How sharp the arguments between the two must have been is best indicated by a letter she wrote him on June 20,1959 while living under the same roof: Papu… There is no point calling the agitation (in Kerala) communal. It is communal only in so far as everything in Kerala is communal,including the communists. The communists very cleverly played the Nairs against the Catholics & now are trying to play the Ezhavas against both.
Just over a month later and only four days short of 51 years ago,Kerala went under presidents rule. Yet during the tense,prolonged and sometimes bitter confrontation leading to this denouement,there was a hilarious interlude. On the way back home from Mashobra,EMS addressed a press conference in Delhi to explain his point of view. One questioner asked him what the prime minister had served him for lunch during their discussions. Exactly what a good Kashmiri Brahmin should offer a good Namboodiri Brahmin from Kerala: fish,meat and chicken,he replied.
The writer is a senior Delhi-based political commentator
