MADURAI: The practical politics and ideology of former Kerala Chief Minister and Communist leader E.M.S. Namoodripad were beyond his times and continued to be extremely relevant to the present political situation of the country and in a society with huge inequalities, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP and polit bureau member, Brinda Karat, said here on Friday.
Addressing the inaugural meeting organised to mark the birth centenary celebrations of the leader, popularly called EMS, Ms. Karat said that Indian politics required an alternative vision to project certain alternatives in all theories and practices.
Stating that even when lakhs of farmers in Tamil Nadu did not have a small patch of land to cultivate and lead a life of dignity, she said that it was EMS who had laid the ground for land reforms much before the country achieved independence.
She pointed out that EMS believed that the country’s development was crucially linked to understanding agriculture, in protecting farmers and the State’s support to them.
“Congress should learn from EMS and should not continue with its anti-farmer policy,” she said. It was an irony that instead of protecting the rights of farmers, the Centre, within 100 days in power, signed a free trade agreement with the ASEAN, allowing import of cheap products that would affect the livelihood of domestic farmers.
The leadership of EMS led to Kerala laying the ground for the best public distribution system in the country. “Even today, the people of Kerala, problems of recession notwithstanding, were assured of cheap commodities through fair price shops,” she said.
EMS was a great supporter of women’s rights and struggle in the Marxist way. The kind of support All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) enjoyed was due to the legacy of EMS, she said.
The Communist leader had shown the way not only to the Left parties, but also to leaders of other political parties by giving away all his family wealth for the cause of people and the party. Ms. Karat said that imperialism wanted to capture the minds of the Third World in order to capture its market by claiming that “ideology is dead.”
“We should learn from EMS to fight back and to assert Marxisim and Leninism for the fundamental social change of the country.”
Party’s State secretary N. Varadarajan; Kerala State CITU leader M.M. Lawerence; polit bureau member U.R. Varadarajan; and MLA N. Nanmaran were among those who spoke.
The Hindu
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