K-Rail protests: Kodiyeri fears a new Liberation Struggle gathering force against LDF government

As the protests against K-Rail intensifies and spreads, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday sought to revive the ghosts of Liberation Struggle, a movement that resulted from the union of political and religious forces and culminated in the ouster of the first Communist ministry in Kerala.

"They are aiming for a broad anti-Left coalition in the guise of K-Rail protests," Kodiyeri told reporters in Kannur. The CPM had invoked the Liberation Struggle at the peak of the Sabarimala protests, too.

This time, the CPM wants the association to be more evident. This is why Kodiyeri stressed that the new coalition was being forged in Changanassery, the headquarters of the original Liberation Struggle.

If he thought that Changanassery was once again breeding the seeds of an anti-Left revolt, it was because of the convergence of Congress leaders, Union Minister V Muraleedharan and various social and religious leaders at the K-Rail protest site at Madappally near Changanassery. "But the leaders of this new coalition should realise that this is not the late 50s," the CPM leader said.

Any mention of the Liberation Struggle, CPM strategists feel, would bring back memories of how an elected Communist ministry was unjustly ousted by the Nehru-led Congress ministry at the Centre in 1959. "By keeping the Liberation Struggle in the background of its counter campaign in favour of K-Rail, it would be easy for the CPM to convince the electorate that a conspiracy is being hatched against the LDF government in Kerala," a top CPM leader said.

Liberation Struggle, in other words, is the CPM's victim card. The hope is that the historical reminder would tip the emotional scale in its favour in its fight to get the SilverLine operational.

Kodiyeri said that those opposing the LDF government should do so with political arguments. "They should not shoot us from the shoulder of K-Rail," Kodiyeri said. "We will implement the project by keeping the people on our side," he said.

There is another reason why Kodiyeri fears there is a conspiracy. "Such rail projects are being carried out in eight other states in the country. But it is only in Kerala that the Congress and the BJP are on the path of agitation. Why is the Congress not organising protests in other parts of the country," the CPM secretary said.

He also did not see any public support for the K-Rail agitation. "Here we are witnessing the phenomenon of land owners themselves replanting the survey poles that the agitators have uprooted," Kodiyeri said. "This is because they know that they would be compensated," he added.

Kodiyeri also wanted to know why women and children were brought to the protest sites. "This is a carefully planned protest," he said. The CPM leader also said that the police were only trying to save lives. "Some even had plans to pour kerosene and light themselves up. Doesn't the police have the responsibility to save lives," he said.