Uzhavoor VijayanIn Kerala’s political history, there has not been many politicians who could captivate an audience and hold them from beginning to end during the course of their speeches. NCP president Uzhavoor Vijayan, who died on Sunday, was one blessed with such a gift of the gab.
The spontaneous enthusiasm that his election campaign rallies always evoked testified to his oratory skills. He could engage anybody with his brand of oratory skill- light hearted, funny and politically incisive. Whoever, the candidate may be, he was the most sought after campaigner during election seasons. Without disappointing anybody, Vijayan used to cover every constituency in all the fourteen districts seeking votes for the front’s candidates.
He earned a reputation for wit, humor, theatricality, and rustic speeches that always kept the listeners entertained. Political parties vied each other to get Vijayan before the microphone. He seldom disappointed them also. His public functions were mass pullers that won him fans cutting across political lines.
In fact, he used to prepare well in advance before delivering a speech. He made it a habit to read newspapers and watch news channels in the morning to ‘gather ingredients’ to ensure that the speech is never boring. He would then polish and edit it in his mind and perk it up with some hard-hitting and catchy epigrams to capture and hold people's attention.
Usually, Vijayan would take the podium before the arrival of top leaders, and soon the crowd would start flowing in. Speeches laced with sarcasm and witty jibes aimed at political opponents have always left the crowd in splits.
Vijayan never allowed his political rivals the mercy of sweet talk. But he was a chronic diabetic patient, and sweets were forbidden to him.
He had to take insulin injections every morning before attending public functions. A vegetarian, he was very strict about diet and had to reduce the intake of rice to keep diabetes under control.
He had a knack for telling jokes on himself as well. A funny incident during the Kerala Unarthu (awakening) Yatra organized by the NCP state unit ahead of the last assembly election had gone viral on social media and was being widely shared by netizens. As Vijayan was delivering a fiery speech against the ruling UDF, his artificial tooth accidentally slipped out of his mouth. However, he nonchalantly responded to the bizarre incident by adding a little twist to a famous dialogue from the movie Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, “Ithukondonnum Chanduvine Tholipikkan Aavilla (This is not enough to beat Chandu).”
“I had replaced my missing teeth with an artificial one for photography’s sake. I have the habit of chewing bubblegum to keep blood sugar levels up. When I made a hard-hitting statement quoting Mohanlal’s popular dialogue from the movie Ravanaprabhu, the tooth went out of my mouth along with the chewing gum. As I was fighting the UDF government tooth and nail, it was not surprising that I lost my tooth,” he quipped after the incident.
Vijayan belonged to the rare breed of politicians who are least interesting in contesting elections. “If everybody goes to the Assembly, there will be no one left outside,” he once said jokingly.
However, once he was forced to seek people’s mandate, against K. M. Mani from the Pala assembly constituency in the 2001 assembly poll. Years later, he spoke about that experience: “Victory was the last thing on my mind when I took on Mani. It was indeed a great experience for me. When mediapersons asked me about my chances, I told them something that no candidate would dare to say. I simply said I stand no chance. One of them asked me about the experience and my answer was that it is better to be run over by a Benz than an autorickshaw.”
His speeches were, if anything, more filled with witty digs at opponents, but he never resorted to petty personal attacks or scornful derision. In his own language, he delivered ‘soft blows on his opponents with flower petals’ through speeches. Incidentally, K. M. Mani has always been his favorite ‘prey’.
At a public meeting held at Tripunithura in connection with M. Swaraj’s election campaign ahead of the last assembly polls, Vijayan was assigned with the task of keeping the crowd engaged till the arrival of V. S. Achuthanandan, the main speaker.
Sprinkled with humor and strong rhetoric, his speech was also replete with references to titles of popular movies and dialogues. “Mani saar (K. M. Mani) will be taken to Hell while I will be in Heaven. Swaraj also will ascend to heaven. I will get a luxury suit there since it is me who talk mostly about these people. In fact, these guys should not leave the earth soon. The UDF was in the ICU. With the shocking revelations in the bar bribery scandal, the front is now shifted to the ventilator. Now, a priest would come and administer the sacrament of the unction of the sick. Finally, when the body is taken to the church, the entire Keralites will say in unison: “Adi Kapyare Koottamani” (Sexton, do toll the death knell repeatedly).
While unleashing a scathing attack on UDF and BJP, he did not forget to take a dig at actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi by slightly distorting a quote from one of the latter’s famous movie dialogues: “This is Kerala, just remember that!”
Throughout the speech, he made intelligent references to movie titles and sarcastic anecdotes that had the audience burst into laughter.
Read more: Latest Kerala news | NCP state president Uzhavoor Vijayan passes away
