[Reader-list] Fwd: Renowned Social Critic and Malayalam Writer Sacaria Heckled & Manhandled as He Spoke Against Moral Policing and Later Manhandled by DYFI Activists at Payyanur(Kannur)

[Venugopalan K M]

Payyanur is in focus again, for its  characteristic  mofussil politics
preoccupied with die-hard defending of  the 'Left'.
A literary seminar and book release was organized by Decemder Books
yesterday which had been participated by many important writers and
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 patronized by
the CPI(M).

Sacaria, the well known  social critic and writer while releasing a
book by Madhu Nair referred to the deplorable state of the society  in
which a man and a woman  found in circumstances of having extra
marital sex or even suspected of doing such thing, would be hounded by
 the moral brigade. He might  be referring to the '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 of an Act that prevent trafficking on women.

According to today's news paper  reports, a group from the audience
heckled Sacaria  and threw filthy abuses at him. Later, while he was
about to leave the town, a small group of DYFI men accosted him and
keys of the car were forcibly snatched from the driver. The group of
about half a dozen men comprising the son of a former MP reportedly
told 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 group
persisted on giving threats and continued to pour abuses on Sacaria.
The organizers of the event who too were CPM sympathizers finally
succeeded in dissuading the small mob . Sensible intervention by
writers like C V Balakrishnan also helped to diffuse the tension.

Along with this incident, someone within or outside Payyanur likes to
recall many an expression of authoritarian 'Leftism' in the past.
Beneath the superficial layer of 'Left' one might sometimes see
unabashedly  expressed casteism and misogyny as betrayed in the case
of  burning an autorikshaw owned and driven by a dalit woman in Dec
2005.

A benign SMS message which was already already  in circulation that
had been sportively forwarded by a young teacher in a parallel college
to his female student some time in 2006 had led to his being expelled
from job 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
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 to the
Sacaria episode.

Lot of reported and unreported incidents like this do occur, but the
party leadership unfailingly find reasons to justify such acts of
vandalism.
(Please check today's Deshabhimani, preferably Kannur edition to see
how the party answers; sorry, I haven't seen it yet)

When even bigwigs of the literary world, like Sacaria are not spared
of such attacks, the small scale 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
contented with a second class status  meekly witnessing these acts of
vandalism and yet not being able to speak out for the 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 '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 . Because they are content with many things they already
share with the 'Left'- for example, the development activities, the
feudal moral and cultural fabric woven with a unique mix of caste and
gender, and so on.
End result : Everybody may fell  happy there 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 at least the
few who might be disillusioned with the Left  in the Party villages
elsewhere in Kannur district!



--



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



--



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



-- 



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