Though opposed to nuke deal, Chandrachoodan earned respect of Pranab Mukherjee

In 2008, at the height of the national debate surrounding the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, an American journalist in Delhi famously mistook T J Chandrachoodan for Prakash Karat.

He found the RSP leader both fiery and sensible in his opposition to the deal that he thought he was the general secretary of the CPM, the party that was most opposed to the nuclear deal with America.

In those heady final days of the UPA-I government led by Manmohan Singh, Chandrachoodan, though he was only the general secretary of a minor Left constituent, was seen as the face of the Left.

Especially when it came to the Indo-US nuclear deal, it was Chandrachoodan who articulated the Left position to the national media.

Bigger than his shoes
When this foreign journalist realised that Chandrachoodan's RSP had just three seats in a Parliament of 545, he is said to have asked in genuine wonder. "How do you manage to punch far above your weight?"

Rather than feeling offended, Chandrachoodan was amused. He responded with a smile: "It is not the number of Parliament seats that decide the force and depth of our opinions."

His erudition and his unparallelled ability to convey complex matters in sharp but simple words had by then earned Chandrachoodan a standing that far exceeded the political sway of his party.

Pranab da's admiration
The then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee was also impressed by Chandrachoodan's thorough understanding of the hugely complex nuclear deal. It is said that Chandrachoodan's handwritten note on the issue was one of the few references Mukherjee always carried with him to meetings related to the deal.

Chandrachoodan had said that he had allowed himself to be tutored by at least three nuclear scientists before adopting his hyper-hawkish position against the nuke deal.

Angrier than Karat
In fact, Chandrachoodan was far more aggressive than even Karat.

He had vehemently opposed the Indian government's decision to send the country's preeminent nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a move even the CPM had agreed to.

He was ideologically more rigid, too.

It was his opposition to having any truck with the Congress that led to the RSP joining the UPA-I alliance much later than other Left parties.
Conspiracy of silence
It is another matter that his own party, in a weird conspiracy of silence, refused to ask for a Rajya Sabha seat for him in 2009 when the RSP could have easily sent its man to the Upper House.

"I was then the de facto spokesperson for the Left at the national level. Had I been in the Rajya Sabha, I could have made the Left and the RSP voice heard even more forcefully," Chandrachoodan had said of his party's decision to scuttle his Rajya Sabha chance.

Pitfalls of honesty
Honesty was Chandrachoodan's undoing. It even confused his political messaging.

He was openly critical of the CPM's brash approach towards smaller allies like the RSP but was disappointed with his state unit when it walked out of the LDF in 2014.

For a layman, it was not clear where he stood on important political issues. He once refused to have anything to do with the Congress but after Modi came to power he consistently maintained that an alternative political formation cannot be formed without the Congress.

Pinarayi and Achuthanandan
This dichotomy was evident even in his personal relationships.

He had spoken of how deeply wounded he was when V S Achuthanandan had gone after his mentor Baby John with vengeance.

But in the same breath, he had said Achuthanandan's actions were not personal, offending his own party men, especially those close to John.

Chandrachoodan himself had admitted that he had more personal rapport with Pinarayi Vijayan but still the perception was that he played his politics in tango with Achuthanandan.

He was seen as an Achuthanandan man. This was said to be one of the factors that led to his defeat to G Karthikeyan in the Aryanad constituency in Thiruvananthapuram during the 2006 Assembly polls.

In 2008, when he lost the RSP state secretary elections to V P Ramakrishna Pillai, Pinarayi is said to have exulted. He told a public gathering: "koduthal kollathum kittum".

This was the native way of saying you will be punished for your deeds; also, the RSP is headquartered in Kollam.

It is said that Pinarayi had a feeling that Chandrachoodan had played a part in making Achuthanandan the Chief Minister.

Too outspoken to be loved
Truth is, Chandrachoodan was severely critical of Achuthanandan, the Chief Minister.

He ridiculed Achuthanandan for abruptly calling an end to the Munnar operation and openly exhorted both the CPM and CPI to disown party offices that were found constructed on encroached land.

The man was too blunt to be liked by anyone on the Left.

Chandrachoodan was aware of this.

After his loss in Aryanad in 2006, he said: "To have an outspoken like me in the cabinet would have caused serious problems for the ministry. The CPM anticipated this and acted accordingly."

Had he won in 2006, he would have been a minister in the Achuthanandan cabinet.

His vote share witnessed a dramatic fall in Aryanad's CPM strongholds. Though Chandrachoodan gave a written complaint to the CPM and the LDF, they were not taken seriously.

TJ the mediator
Still, there were instances when his sharp candour has been of immense help to the Left. In 2007, when there was a political stalemate involving Achuthanandan and CPI state secretary Veliyam Bhargavan, it was to Chandrachoodan that the national general secretaries of both parties rushed.

When the Centre announced Rs 100 crore assistance for agriculture, the Chief Minister formed a committee under his chairmanship to devise ways to utilise the funds.

Bhargavan was livid, he did not like the Chief Minister interfering in a CPI department.

Both were headstrong leaders who hated to back off from a fight. As expected, both were unwelcoming when Chandrachoodan arrived for mediation.

"VS was so dismissive that he very nearly asked T J to get lost," a close aide of Achuthanandan said.

The Chief Minister was especially peeved because he knew that it was Pinarayi who had suggested Chandrachoodan as the mediator.

"Thankfully, TJ's dignified bluntness saved the day. He plainly told VS that he was in the wrong, and that he should have consulted the CPI before taking the decision.

Eventually, VS conceded. This was uncharacteristic of VS but all of us knew he had a deep respect for TJ," the aide said.