Criticism of Pinarayi Vijayan or PM Modi? Kerala’s tallest author MT sparks row with remarks against ‘hero worship’

MT’s criticism, raised in the presence of the CM, was viewed as a barb against Vijayan. Later, the author came out with a clarification. “I was not criticising anyone. I wanted to speak the truth. If that paved the way for self-criticism for someone, it is fine,” he said.

MT is a cultural phenomenon in Kerala. In over seven decades, he has published nine novels, 19 collections of short stories, over 50 film scripts, directed six films, three travelogues, a play, and numerous collections of essays and memoirs. He won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award at the age of 25 for his second novel Naalukettu (1959) and a decade later Kaalam, his fifth novel, fetched him the Kendra Sahitya Academi prize.

Few artists in any language have enjoyed as much commercial and critical success as MT. He has also been politically engaged, campaigning with the civil society for the preservation of rivers, against nuclear plants, and has written against authoritarianism.

During the recently concluded Nava Kerala Sadas, a statewide tour of the Cabinet, Vijayan received extreme praise from his ministers. Minister V N Vasavan, for instance, said, “Vijayan is a blessing for Kerala from God.” The Sadas witnessed several such praises from Cabinet colleagues and CPI(M) leaders. A week ago, CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan described Vijayan as the “sun” and said that “anyone who goes near the sun will get wilted”.

As political rivals claimed that the criticism was aimed at Vijayan, the CPI(M) clarified that the author’s speech was from a collection of his articles published in 2003. The CPI(M) social media handles reproduced the relevant portions of the said article that MT quoted in his speech. The article has reference to EMS and leadership worship, which MT used in his Thursday speech.

Reacting to the author’s comments, CPI(M) central committee member and Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener E P Jayarajan said the party had always been against the worship of individuals. “MT should not be dragged into the controversy. I don’t find any reason to target the CM and the state in his words. When I heard the speech, I felt it was a criticism against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP and the Union Government, fascism, and attacks against the Parliamentary system. The CPI(M) is always against the worship of leaders. The CPI(M) is a party of collective leadership. But nobody denies the importance of persons in society,” he said.

However, Opposition leader and Congress legislator V D Satheesan said, “The speech of MT, delivered in the presence of the CM, should not fall on deaf ears. The intellectuals, media and cultural leaders who sing paeans for the government should lend ears to the words of MT. I am happy that MT has reacted against dictatorship, how power corrupts man and how power takes man to arrogance. Any person with common sense knows to whom MT was referring. We know why E P Jayarajan does not understand it.”

State BJP president K Surendran said the author expressed the sentiment of the state. “Even as the CPI(M) claims that the party is against individual worship, party leaders in Kerala are engaged in worshipping him. MT has exposed the double standard of the CPI(M),” he said.

MT, in his address, also said, “We have been hearing for a long time about the decline of values in politics. Political work is a recognised route to attain power. Anywhere, power can be supremacy or dictatorship. A Cabinet berth or a membership in an Assembly or Parliament is an opportunity for supremacy. The doctrine that power is an opportunity to serve people had been buried long ago.”

“A leader, who aims at the creation of a society which is eager to free itself from all forms of oppression, must always have thought in new directions and vision to new horizons. In such a society, a leader becomes a historical necessity. That was EMS. I hope that those in power will realise that this is the need of the hour,” he added.