VS, an emotion

Comrade VS Achuthanandan was an emotion for Kerala. VS's word was something that Malayalis could always trust in life. Except for his recent withdrawal from active politics due to health problems, VS was a red star who had been burning in the political history of Kerala for ages. Since he was a leader who was enshrined in their hearts, people would shout "Kanne karale VS-eh" whenever he came near.

Kerala has been waiting to know what VS would say, whenever the social and political life of the state has been in crisis. When such a beloved leader bids farewell, the Malayali conscience is so sad that it does not know what to do. Kerala sheds tears thinking that there is no more such a person. The truth that there is no more VS to replace VS hurts every Malayali. This departure is a great disappointment for any truth seeker who wants the sun of goodness not to set.

It was P. Krishna Pillai who gave Communist Party membership to VS Achuthanandan alias Velikakathu Sankaran Achuthanandan, who lost his mother at the age of four and his father at the age of eleven. The teenager, who had been helping his elder brother in the cloth shop, heard stories of the brutal cruelty inflicted by the feudal authority and the Diwan rule in Kerala while working as a weaver in the Aspinwall Company in Alappuzha. He did not think twice about joining the daring and dangerous struggle against it. It was a time when injustice and inequality were rampant in the brutal justice of the state. Seeing the energetic work of the young fighter named VS, who came out to fight for the despised, oppressed and destitute workers, Krishna Pillai made VS a member of the party a year before he turned eighteen. Not only did he suffer severe beatings and imprisonment, but the police even bayoneted VS's foot for not revealing party secrets.

It was a time of selfless political action. Leaders like VS built the movement we see today by travelling for miles, suppressing the hungry inside, and by washing and drying clothes on the banks of rivers because they didn't have another pair of clothes to change into. With the passing of VS, one of the last links of that era is lost. VS's life cannot be separated from the history of the Communist Party of India. VS was one of the 32 who left the CPI Central Committee to form the CPM when the undivided Communist Party split in 1964. With his passing, none of the central leaders who shaped the CPM are left.

VS had only a basic education up to the seventh grade. However, he knew very well which language to use to speak to the workers. VS changed his own style of speech to attract the agricultural workers to organise them. VS's style of speech, which repeated words with stretching and shortening tones, became popular with the people even in later years. VS, who worked as a member of the PB, the highest committee of the CPM, and the secretary of the Party in Kerala, went from being a strict leader to one of the most popular leaders Kerala had ever seen. By the end of the nineties, VS's voice was heard loud and clear for the environment, rivers, fields, women's equality, and the protection of the hills.

VS received support not only from outside his own party but also at the national level in these struggles. It was a time when encroachment mafias, corrupt people and women abusers would tremble at the mere mention of VS. It cannot be denied that VS's activities as the Leader of the Opposition helped Kerala's nature, including the Western Ghats and Mathikettan Shola, to some extent, to survive in its current state. Although critics mocked it as a vettinirathal (literally translates to cut down), time has proven that VS was right. The natural disasters we faced are an example of that. It is unfortunate for Kerala that those struggles later went unheeded.

When VS became the Chief Minister of Kerala in 2006, he paid special attention to the development issues of Kerala. Most recently, when he was the Chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission, VS submitted 13 reports to make the administration efficient and transparent. Like AKG, VS was a leader who was admired by the people of Kerala.

A leader who always remembered his roots. VS was a well-wisher and a close friend of Kerala Kaumudi. The Kerala Kaumudi birth centenary celebrations were inaugurated in February 2011 by the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. We will always remember with gratitude that the then Chief Minister VS stood by with great interest in inviting the Prime Minister. We join the millions who are grieving the loss of VS and express our condolences to the bereaved family members. VS was an era in Kerala politics. When that era ends, time stands still for a moment. VS will now become the history of Kerala written in golden letters, spreading the ethos of that struggle.

Deepu Ravi
Chief Editor
22 July 2025