Thrissur: The CPM on Tuesday launched a drive to appease pro-Left writer and Sahitya Akademi president K Satchidanandan, who had embarrassed the LDF government ahead of the assembly elections by warning of the dangers of the same political outfit coming to power repeatedly.Party district secretary KV Abdul Khader and Sahitya Akademi vice-president Asokan Charuvil met him at his residence in Satchidanandan, apparently for mediation.
After the meeting, Harder and Charouville tried to downplay the altercation. According to them, Satchidanandan clarified that he was making a general observation and was not specifically addressing the situation in Kerala. They said Satchidanandan also claimed that the media had distorted some of his statements.Satchidanandan, however, said he stood by his view on the dangers of political parties repeatedly coming to power. He said he had witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of such an experience in West Bengal.“I have seen the degeneration of the Communist Party of Bangladesh. As the party continues to come to power, more and more corrupt and power-hungry people are pouring into the party. Authoritarian tendencies can firmly control a party that has been in power for a long time. This is not only true for the CPM but for any political party,” he said.“I am not suggesting that the governing party be changed every five years. I am not referring to a specific time limit at all, but I am raising concerns about the dangers to democracy if any political group is in power for a long time,” he said, referring to criticism of him by former finance minister Thomas Isaac.He criticized suggestions that he should not criticize the government because it paid him to be the director of the Sahitya Academy. “This is just a recollection of the reactionary thinking that the relationship between the chairman of the academic committee and the government is similar to the relationship between feudal landowners and tenants,” he said.Satchidanandan dismissed online attacks on him from leftist sympathizers, saying: “It’s clear that the virtual fool’s paradise of the online crowd didn’t even try to understand the meaning I was trying to convey, which was completely lost in this Lilliputian verbal bullfight.”General Education Minister Sivankutty claimed that Satchidanandan made the criticism without doing proper homework and analyzing political realities.Unlike CPM leaders, CPI officials took a softer approach to Sachidanandan’s criticism of the ruling LDF. CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam and minister K Rajan said the LDF considered Satchidanandan a true ally and his criticism would be treated with utmost respect. They said they would not try to silence the dissenting voices of their left-wing friends like Satchidanandan.Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan continued to support Satchidanandan and activist writer Sarah Joseph in their criticism of the CPM-led government, saying cultural leaders actually expressed the views of the vast majority of people.
