Bipin Balaram
The events that unfolded in Kerala's socio-political scene in the last few days served a great purpose. They exposed the real class nature of institutionalised Left in Kerala and the government that it leads. They revealed, even to its most naive sympathisers, the Left's complete prostration before Capital and its resolve to crush working class activism. Let me take you on a quick guided tour of these illuminating events.
The blockbuster event was the "Invest Kerala Global Summit 2025" organised in Kochi by the government of Kerala and vigorously (one can even say, psychotically) supported by the CPIM. It was nothing short of Kerala's own "Kumbh Mela of Vikaas" (in Malayalam, it can aptly be called വികസനകുംഭമേള). While the sangh parivar exhorted us to attain moksha by taking a dip in Ganga with 'high levels of faecal bacteria', the Kerala Left purified itself by taking the holy dip in the sea of Capital, which, as Marx said, "comes dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with blood and dirt".
The government of Kerala spent crores to advertise their "Vikaas Kumbh Mela" in front page of newspapers, including their Delhi editions, and in social media platforms. CPIM was desperate to make the corporate world see how pro-business and bourgeois-friendly they are. BJP central ministers, CPM state ministers and congress opposition leaders adorned the stage of 'Invest Kerala' and together rolled out the red carpet for investment, all along cuddling, laughing and praising each other. On stage, Karan Adani showered praise on both Narendra Modi and Pinarayi Vijayan for their 'development initiatives'; a proud moment indeed for the Kerala Left!!
In their multi crore advertisement blitz, the Left all along stressed the great progress that Kerala has made under their able leadership in 'Ease of Doing Business'. Invest Kerala website declares: "Kerala leads the way in business reforms, securing the
top achiever status in Ease of Doing Business 2022 .... by getting 9 top
achiever spots .... thereby becoming the best performer in the
country. ... Kerala is continuing the best performance in Ease of
Doing Business by completing 99% of the reforms related to Ease of Doing
Business Reforms of 2024".
What does 'Ease of Doing Business' mean in class terms? Business/investment is done solely for profit, and surplus value extracted from workers is the essence of profit. Extraction of surplus value is nothing but exploitation of the working class. Hence, 'Ease of Doing Business' is, in plain words, 'Ease of Exploiting Workers'. This is the class essence of the fancy phrase 'Ease of Doing Business'; it is nothing but making all necessary arrangements for easy and smooth exploitation of workers.
"Business reforms related to Ease of Doing Business", which the Kerala Left claims to have 99% completed, are measures aimed at ruthlessly tearing down every thing that stands in the way of 'Ease of Exploiting Workers'. While calling themselves Communists, the CPIM proudly declares that they have brought-in reforms in Kerala to facilitate the exploitation of the working class, and that they are NO. 1 in India in this regard!!
The biggest roadblocks to exploitation of the working class, and hence to 'Ease of Doing Business', are proletarian class consciousness and labour activism. So, to facilitate the 'Ease of Exploiting Workers', the CPIM led Left government is duty bound to suppress any labour activism or struggle in the state. They got a great opportunity to showcase their sincerity in this regard in front of the business class by suppressing, maligning and discrediting the ongoing struggle of the ASHA workers in Kerala.
The ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers of Kerala have been on strike from February 10 demanding a revision of their honorarium, release of the same before the 5th of every month and provision for retirement benefit. ASHA workers of the state, who have been fulfilling a crucial role in improving public health, are overworked, understaffed and underpaid. But the Kerala government, under the able leadership of the CPIM, is determined to suppress and defeat their strike. It could not be otherwise. If they want to keep their promises to the business class made in 'Invest Kerala', then they have to suppress any and every working class movement as part of maintaining the 'Ease of Exploiting Workers'.
Thus, while the Left top brass was basking themselves in "Vikaas Kumbh Mela", the CPIM and government machinery set about spreading lies, hurling threats and trying to break the morale of the women on strike. This is not a new thing; the Kerala Left has tried to scuttle every spontaneous working class/student movement in Kerala in the last decade. They have the history of vehemently opposing the spontaneous and militant movements of private hospital nurses (among the most exploited workers in Kerala), tea/coffee plantation workers, private engineering students and private nursing students, to name a few.
The Kerala Left, and especially the CPIM, is very particular that working class activism in the state should not be allowed to go beyond the strict limits set on it by their trade unions, which have degraded themselves to the level of dalals of the capitalists. Their firm message to the workers of Kerala is as follows: "If you want to protest, we will give you an opportunity to do so in the formal, ceremonial strikes that our trade unions conduct on one or two days a year. Participate in them and go home. Because, remember .... we are committed towards facilitating 'Ease of Exploiting Workers'"!!
Fittingly, the lead role in the efforts to suppress the ASHA workers was taken up by the state secretary of CITU, Mr. Elamaran Kareem, who, as the minister for industries in a previous Left government, has emerged as a darling of Kerala business class. He declared that the strike is "politically motivated" (Lenin said that the duty of a vanguard party is to impart political content to purely economic struggles, and here is CITU secretary complaining that a strike is politically motivated!), that it is being led by anarchist elements (for CPIM, every anti-capitalist is an anarchist now!) and that the ASHA women have been misled. He also scorned the striking workers at every opportunity and tried incessantly to malign their struggle.
While the Kerala Left government was adamant that the monthly honorarium of ASHA workers cannot be increased, last week it decided to give a fat pay rise to the chairman and the members of Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC). Kerala has a jumbo PSC under the present government with 21 members, all of whom are political appointments. These are lucrative posts which usually go to people close to the ruling dispensation. The chairman's salary was hiked from a maximum of Rs 2.26 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh, while members’ salary was raised from Rs 2.23 lakh to Rs 3.25 lakh. The Kerala Left, who call themselves "Communists-Marxists", is hell-bent on not increasing the ASHA workers salary from Rs. 7000. But they are ready to shower Rs 3.25 lakhs monthly on their chamchas sitting in the PSC.
The Left government did not stop there. On the very next day, they proposed an increase in the travel allowance of Mr. K. V. Thomas, who adorns the ludicrous post created by the Kerala government named 'The Special Representative of Kerala in Delhi', from 5 lakhs to 11.31 lakhs! Mr. Thomas was associated with Congress for many decades, but defected from them and aligned with the CPIM after being denied a parliamentary seat. This is not news at all in Kerala, the Left has become the chosen destination of deserters from the Congress and the BJP. Why wouldn't it be, given the extent to which the Left has stooped? This travel allowance hike is besides the 12.50 lakhs honorarium that he already draws, along with having a private secretary, assistant, office attendant, and driver, all paid for by the state.
The tendency in Kerala Left cannot be clearer; suppress the workers, deny them decent wages and working conditions, prostrate before the business class, ensure that they do not face any obstacles in extracting profit, splash money on servile associates and defectors from other parties to maintain their grip on power. And all along calling themselves 'Marxists'!!
But the cherry on the cake was yet to come. When all of this was happening, Mr. Shashi Tharoor, the arch-opportunist and the darling of the philistine upper middle class in Kerala,
was having a falling out with the congress state leadership. The CPIM machinery smelt blood and swiftly got into their 'courtship' mode. Enter Mr. A. K. Balan, a Central Committee member of the CPIM, who has emerged as the 'Wooer-in-chief' in the Kerala Left. A few months earlier, Mr. Sandeep Varrier, a prominent sangh parivar leader famous for his venomously communal speeches, defected from the BJP after being denied party ticket in election to
Palakkad constituency. Balan instantly welcomed him to the CPIM saying that he
would make a very good comrade! This time, he promptly declared that Tharoor is a 'globally renowned intellectual' and a 'revolutionary'!! CPIM then sent hapless DYFI leaders to Tharoor's house to invite him to the 'Startup Fest' that they were conducting. Of course Mr. Tharoor, supreme opportunist that he is, resisted any attempts to jump ship too soon and is waiting for the right time to maximise his gains (he will most probably jump to the BJP at the right time).
What do these events, and many more similar ones, tell us about the institutionalised Left? The Indian institutionalised Left, led by the CPIM, had abandoned Marxism and drifted into the line of social democracy decades ago. Lenin remarked that social democracy is the renegade inside the working class which, in the guise of a working class party, carries out bourgeois policies. This renegade nature of the Left is being unmasked before the public every day. Their prostration before Capital is complete. In power, they work as a facilitator to the bourgeoisie in ensuring the smooth exploitation of workers. Using the party structure and trade unions, they make sure that the working class is kept under control.
This is the reason why the most rabid attack on the ASHA strike has come from CITU leaders. According to the division of labour in social democracy, the Left government serves the capitalist class by implementing outright neoliberal policies. CITU, as its trade union front, has the 'class duty' to make sure that the workers are kept on a tight leash and are not allowed to protest against these policies. Hence, any strike that outgrows the 'ceremonial' scope of CITU strikes, is a danger to the bourgeoisie and social democracy. No surprise that CITU state vice president Harshakumar called the woman leader of the strike "a pest that spreads infectious diseases".
It is very natural that a CITU leader, who is duty bound to control the working class to protect Capital and the bourgeoisie, sees striking ASHA workers as 'pests'. But the 'infectious disease' that they are spreading is called working class consciousness. And soon the opportunist, institutionalised Left will be slayed by this 'disease' and the 'pests' will set humanity free of this moribund system.
