---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 9:25 AM Subject: The 'Left' that takes Pride in Bullying To: [email protected]
*Payyanur:* A small town in the northern Kannur district of Kerala is in focus again, for its characteristic ways of bullying in the name of defending 'Left'. On 10-01-2010 evening ,a literary seminar and book release were organized by Decemder Books .The event had participation of many important literary figures of Kerala and was attended by an enlightened audience together with activists of the Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham(Forum for Progessive Art and Lierature). Pu.Ka .Sa is an all Kerala Organization considered to be under the control of the state unit of the CPI(M). Sacaria, the well known social critic and writer, while releasing a book by Madhu Nair referred to certain deplorable features of the society; where a man and a woman when found in circumstances of having extra marital sex or even suspected of such thing, would be hounded by the moral brigade, for example. Obviously , Sacaria was alluding to an 'anaasasyam' case recently clamped on Rajmohan Unnithan at Manjeri, Malalappuram district in which a local mob led by DYFI and PDP activists surrounded a house and got the police to arrest Rajmohan (a Congress leader) under sections related to a criminal legislation which is actually meant to prevent trafficking on women. In that incident, Rajmohan Unnithan was found in the company of a woman who was not his wife but who had been known as Seva Dal leader and a friend of Unnithan. According to today's news paper reports, as Sacaria spoke about the culture of bullying and growing intolerance , a small gang from the audience heckled Sacaria and threw filthy abuses at him. Later, while he was about to leave the town, this group of DYFI men accosted him and keys of the car were forcibly snatched from the driver. According to the reports,the gang of about half a dozen men included son of a former Member of Parliament from Kasargode constituency of which Payyanur assembly constituency ia a partt. The gang shouted at Sacaria that he would not be allowed to get away in good shape, with this kind of speeches made(against the movement and party!) at Payyanur. They threatened to smash his head and teeth. Sacaria reportedly replied that he would then be happy to have a taste of the DYFI culture of Payyanur. Irritated by this, the gang pushed him by the neck and manhandled him. They persisted on shouting, giving threats and continued to pour abuses on Sacaria. The organizers of the event were CPM sympathizers too and they finally succeeded in dissuading the small mob. Sensible intervention by literatuers like C V Balakrishnan also helped to diffuse the tension. Along with this incident, someone within or outside Payyanur may wish to recall many an expression of misguided, authoritarian 'Leftism' in the past. Beneath the thin, superficial layer of 'Left', one might see the unabashed face of casteism and misogyny as displayed in the case of burning an autorikshaw owned and driven by a dalit woman in Dec 2005. In another incident, a benign SMS message which had been already in circulation and thus been sportively forwarded by a young teacher in a parallel college to his female student some time in 2006, led to his expulsion from job allegedly at the behest of SFI /DYFI enthusiasts, and finally to his committing suicide. Sending this kind of 'controversial' SMS to a girl student by a male teacher was judged as giving disrepute to both the educational institution and the girl (who will marry her then?).Jagadeesh, the teacher had been badly roughed up in public and in broad day light by the die-hard 'Leftists'. But again, the poor teacher also had a back history of 'antagonizing' the Party just by keeping aloof from it, in spite of his residing in a Parrish largely under the diktat of the Party. Speakers in a meeting organized by the colleagues of Jagadeesh and a few human rights activists in the small town of Payyanur also had been threatened by a gang of 'Lleftists' in ways similar as in the Sacaria episode. Lot of reported and unreported incidents like this do occur, but the party leadership unfailingly find reason to justify such acts of vandalism. When even bigwigs of the literary world, like Sacaria are not spared of such attacks, comparatively much less luminous human rights fighters of Payyanur can definitely be proud of bearing the brunt of such attacks on many occasions in the past. But pitiable indeed, is the plight of those organizing progressive events under the auspices of organizations like Pu.Ka. Sa (Forum for Progressive Art and Literature), who have to be content being people with subordinate status, as meek witnesses of these acts of vandalism and who are yet unable to speak out, just for fear of ostracizing and harassment by the big people who really manage their shows. Payyanur and its people are always taken for granted by the CPI(M). Each election is a cake walk for the 'Left'. The opposition parties, on the other hand, are neither too ambitious to challenge the 'Leftists' on the electoral arena nor do they feel any such need . This must be because they are content with many things they already share with the 'Left' or rather the ‘Left’ recently shares with them. For example, all those development activities, the feudal moral and cultural fabric woven with a unique mix of caste and gender, and so on. End result : Everybody feels more or less happy here in Payyanur, with the 'Left' taking care of the cultural /moral concerns of all, though a few(outcastes?) will continue to make noises here and there. Again, thank them for not showing any sympathy to the RSS unlike few in other parts of Kannur district, who have indeed crossed the floor thanks to their disillusion with the Left ! www.mynews.in -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com--
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