Posters threatening writer C.V. Balakrishnan who decried the gruesome murder of T.P. Chandrasekharan were posted in front of his house on Friday. Kerala has been shocked at the intolerance which indicates the rise of ‘Talibanism’

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties,” said poet John Milton.

But it appears the CPI (M) in the state mistakenly swears by critic Samuel Johnson who said: “Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.”

On Friday morning writer C.V. Balakrishnan woke up to see threatening posters stuck in front of his house. His fault was that he denounced the murder of T.P. Chandrasekharan.

Four posters came up in front of his house contents of which were personal attacks one of them saying his stay in a ‘party village’ was at the mercy or the bounty of the party.

“I had just completed an article on M.T. Vasudevan Nair as editor and just stepped out of the house in the morning I was shocked to see the posters tarnishing me.

They even had to say about my father-in-law who was a communist in the 40s and died long ago. It could all be because I attended a meeting at Payyannur to denounce the murder of T.P. Chandrasekharan. It was gruesome. Anyone would have been hurt by the way TPC was killed.”

Cultural Kerala has been shocked by the posters. Leading writer Anand feels that these reactions have come out of sheer desperation.

The probe in the TPC murder is slowly exposing things. This is how things have been for the party and what its leader M.M. Mony revealed is nothing shocking, he says.

Director Satyan Anthikkad who has worked closely with Balakrishnan says this is Talibanism ruling in the state.

The left should show respect to others and their right to live and express their opinion, he felt.

Even Left ideologue K.E.N. Kunjumohammed feels any issue can be dealt with in many ways. But whether a person follows rational, logical or ideological stand depends on one’s culture and here in this case Marxists did not deal with the issue in the right way. “Criticism on issues should not be met with threats or intimidation.

The use of the sentence that ‘he was allowed to live on the bounty of Marxists’, is quite against democratic ethos. Every citizen is free to live in this nation and it is not bounty of any person,” he said.

Poet Sugathakumari said it was time political parties ended the practice of threatening writers. “Don’t think that anyone can attack writers at his will,” was how she reacted.

Young writer Susmesh Chandroth, “This arrogance is against our tradition of tolerance. Any difference of opinion on a view expressed by anyone should be debated and discussed.”

Poet K.G. Sankara Pillai feels that there is an urgent need for a refinement of thought among the Left.

“There appears to have set in an intellectual poverty within the Left. Violence has got into the political consciousness and democratization is the only solution to this,” he says.

Lyricist P.K. Gopi says, “The reaction for an ideological issue is not intolerance and it should be dealt with peacefully using reason.

Indeed, our era of ‘civilization’ needs to be characterized by peace and democracy rather than threat, hostility and conflict.”

Historian M.G.S. Narayanan says the fascist views of the CPI (M) are well known to outside world. “The threat to C.V. Balakrishnan is not a novel issue from the part of CPI (M) and still we live in a world with fear every second. Intellectual progress is not a matter of concern and powerful hands rule society. We are all frightened to utter a word and our freedom is under chains,” he says.

What crime did I commit, asks writer

The CPM in Kerala, which is on the radar after the party’s Idukki district secretary M.M. Mony boasted of the party’s involvement in political murders, received an open call from renowned Bengali writer Mahashwetha Devi to stand for peace.

The Jnanpith-winner shot off a letter on Friday to CPM’s Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan after one of her readers from the state alerted her over Mony’s controversial speech in which he had also made some allegedly “obscene remarks” against her.

The writer, who recently visited the house of slain CPM rebel T.P. Chandrashekharan in Kannur, Kerala, put her words emotionally, “I have seen the blood-stained stair on the nearby wall which was still red where TP was butchered.”

On Mony’s remarks against her, she wondered, “..of all the people in the world, on me! What crime did I commit to deserve this?

Sitting in Kolkata, I see this crude and uncouth character spitting venom on me,” she said in the letter written in her own handwriting.

However, the octogenarian writer dealt with this in a philosophical way, pardoning Mony and taking the world’s blame on her own.

“In a strange and metaphorical manner, he (Mony) is true. At the young age of 87, I am still suffering from the lust of life,” she said, adding,“I am not angry with Mani.

Watching him was great fun. I cannot take any action against Mani.” (Mony is also spelt as Mani).

She said she couldn’t believe her ears when she heard people saying during her visit to Kerala that nobody in the state could go anywhere near the “mansion” of Pinarayi Vijayan, adding, “horror shot up within (me) when they say that one of the reasons for which Chandrashekharan had to pay with his life was that he dared to take some comrades to see this palace with their naked eyes.”

She compared her rebel hero Bashai Tudu with Chandrashekharan, and urged the young comrades in Kerala to translate this book into Malayalam.

She ended her letter by appealing to the writers, filmmakers and cultural workers to stand up and protest.

“Yamraj (God of death) is identified with South direction. But, it cannot be Kerala. It is so green. And I lust for green,” she said.