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At a time when none in Kerala's Left politics questioned the chief minister's authority, MLA P V Anvar hurled a series of accusations against Pinarayi Vijayan's government, notes Shyam G Menon.
On the evening of September 29, 2024, most of the leading Malayalam news channels in Kerala featured a live telecast.
It was of a public meeting in Chandakkunnu, Nilambur, and on stage was P V Anvar, MLA.
For the past few weeks, Anvar, who represents Nilambur, had been a person of pivotal interest in Kerala.
Into the second consecutive term of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front government and at a time when none in Kerala's Left politics questioned the chief minister's authority, the MLA -- he contested and won the 2016 and 2021 assembly elections as an independent candidate supported by the LDF -- hurled a series of accusations against Vijayan's government.
At least one of these accusations -- that the state's Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Ajith Kumar, had secret meetings with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh -- stuck.
The rest sent tongues wagging. To his credit, Vijayan met Anvar. Reported by the media, Anvar's allegations kicked up a political storm.
It embarrassed the LDF; most notably its biggest constituent, the Communist Party of India-Marxist.
The CPI-M first asked Anvar to stop the tirade and when that yielded little result, formally withdrew the LDF-backing he had.
A cryptic Anvar promised a series of public meetings where he would reveal more details and seek the support of the people. The first of these meetings was the one at Chandakkunnu.
Anvar -- he hails from a family known well to the Congress -- told his audience that the chief minister had been like a father figure to him. But now the chief minister was unresponsive to what was happening in the state.
Kerala's problem, Anvar claimed, was a 'nexus' involving politicians from all parties that seemed agreed on corruption.
Already a hot topic in the state due to an earlier scandal allegedly involving officials close to the chief minister's office, gold smuggling was a major issue in Anvar's speech too.
This time, it was the smuggling of gold through Karippur airport (it serves multiple cities in north Kerala, including Kozhikode) in Malappuram district.
Anvar felt that the airport's dominance in gold smuggling alongside a majority of hawala transactions in Kerala attributed to Malappuram, cast a whole community and the district in bad light.
He seemed to blame it on how the subject was presented. Then, there were references in his speech to land transactions and the bureaucracy therein.
One murder case and the disappearance of a nodal figure in north Kerala's real estate deals, were brought up.
The murder was that of an individual allegedly linked to gold smuggling and killed in a shooting incident. The case was reportedly closed by the police.
In a September 7, 2024 report on its Web site, Kerala Kaumudi said, Anvar has sought a reinvestigation of the case citing the accused's claim that he was tortured and forced to confess.
According to the report, it is suspected that the accused's phone held evidence that could implicate the police.
The disappearance referred to, was that of Kozhikode based-realtor and businessman, Attoor Mohammed, who has been missing since August 21, 2023.
On September 9, 2024,onmanorama.com reported that Mohammed's family had welcomed the state government's decision to hand over the case-investigation to the Crime Branch.
The report quoted a member of the action council welcoming the Crime Branch investigation, saying that the Special Investigation Team, looking into the case had been hastily formed by ADGP Ajith Kumar and seven of its nine members were police personnel from an earlier enquiry team that they had complained about because of its slow pace of work.
At Chandakkunnu, in his references to both the CPI-M and the police, Anvar was careful to distinguish party cadre and ordinary police personnel from their respective leadership.
He reiterated many times that he nursed no grudge against CPI-M cadres in Malappuram district, who he recognised, worked hard for the party.
At the same time, he kept highlighting potential danger to himself due to his public statements and said he was prepared to face any violent consequences or incarceration.
To all of the above, he added a diatribe against forest department officials over a spectrum of issues ranging from man-animal conflict to the department's alleged inefficiency in maintaining wildlife infrastructure within the forest, to their reluctance in parting with even small parcels of land for development projects.
He referred to the challenges faced by hill farmers. He said that the biggest danger around was the ascent of right-wing forces represented politically by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its systematic gains in Kerala.
Anvar's ire seemed directed in the main towards the chief minister, his political secretary Shashi, ADGP Ajith Kumar and E N Mohandas, secretary of the CPI-M in Malappuram.
His speech was noteworthy for how it voiced the general sense of dissatisfaction in Kerala over the Pinarayi Vijayan government (in part because the government is an easy target for anything gone wrong given its second consecutive term in power). However, the speech lacked a central issue one could hold on to, save the charges against the ADGP. The rest remained in the realm of already known popular angst.
On gold smuggling, Anvar said that the state police could have acted on the contact information of recipients, which couriers taken into custody, possess.
In a land where a previous high profile gold smuggling case (with those accused operating close to the chief minister), appears petered off after the arrest of a senior IAS officer, these are questions frequently discussed at households.
The same goes for man-animal conflicts. Anger towards forest officials is high in affected communities and the allegation that government officials tasked with protecting wildlife are not doing enough to ensure adequate feed and water inside the forest, are points heard often.
Hill farmers are an influential lot, especially in places like Nilambur, which Anvar represents. They found mention in the speech.
In his portrait of Kerala's forests growing and impacting human life on the periphery, Anvar isn't alone.
In the confrontation between conservationists and those living off businesses in the hills, there have been various theories floated about Kerala's forest cover, including allegations by farmer-business bodies of foreign players said to be interested in keeping Kerala in a green, leafy trap.
Some of these theories are hard to believe. Yet in the absence of proper, pointed replies from government, they find traction among the gullible.
Thus, apart from the charges against the ADGP and allegations of inadequate action on his complaints by the chief minister, Anvar's volley harked of an anti-aircraft gun firing.
Plenty of shots with the hope that something sticks. Or, he reposes much faith in channelising public angst.
Does it mean Anvar's road show may be marginalised as a side act? No. The strongest arrow in Anvar's quiver was the one citing secret meetings between ADGP Ajith Kumar and the RSS.
In a report dated September 27, 2024, mathrubhumi.com said that the first meeting between Ajith Kumar and Dattatreya Hosabale, the general secretary of the RSS, took place in Thrissur on May 22, 2023.
An adjunct to these meetings was the allegation that the ADGP may have been influential in a controversy, which happened at the 2024 Thrissur Pooram, wherein ahead of the grand fireworks-finale, disagreements between the festival organising committee and the police led to the festival being in limbo for a few hours.
This, some have contended since, played to the advantage of Suresh Gopi, the BJP candidate contesting Lok Sabha elections from Thrissur.
The Pooram was around the same time as the 2024 general elections. On September 28, 2024 the media reported that the Communist Party of India, whose candidate had also been in the fray in Thrissur, had filed a police complaint against Suresh Gopi (he eventually won from Thrissur) for using an ambulance owned by an RSS-affiliate organisation to reach the venue of the Pooram despite police restrictions in place.
Anvar's allegations find listeners because of two factors in the larger political ambiance.
First, the spectacle of a chief minister and his office surviving beleaguered amid various controversies, has fostered suspicion in the public about how such existence is possible when New Delhi has otherwise gleefully hunted non-BJP state governments.
Second, there is structural and behavioral similarities between cadre-based parties like the CPI-M and BJP; only the software is different.
What if the software got switched or corrupted? On September 29, 2024, The Times of India said, Anvar had alleged that Mohandas, the CPI-M secretary in Malappuram, has links with the RSS. Both Mohandas and the CPI-M district secretariat dismissed the allegations, the report said. But allegations spread suspicion.
Given the chief minister handles the home affairs portfolio, people think that meetings between the ADGP and the RSS wouldn't have happened without the chief minister knowing.
The suspicion makes accusations that the CPI-M has connections with the RSS, sound real even if they are not. More important, it drains credibility from the CPI-M's claim of being unflinchingly secular. This can have serious political repercussions.
In Kerala, there are Hindus, Muslims and Christians who vote for secular parties. Not to mention secularism has for long been seen as a valuable credential for any non-Muslim party wooing the Muslim vote.
As the biggest minority community in Kerala and the majority in Malappuram district, the Muslim vote matters for all the three major political parties -- Congress, CPI-M and BJP -- operating in the state.
Of these, the BJP is least likely to be perceived as secular. That leaves the Congress and the CPI-M.
How the political impact of the ADGP meeting the RSS may play out is anybody's guess.
It may inspire some Hindus to vote for the CPI-M; it may inspire some Muslims to vote for the Congress and not the CPI-M.
What many fear is that the long-term gainer may be the BJP because the CPI-M would stand discredited and the Congress, given how similar its voters are to the BJP's, risks losing some of its voters to the saffron party.
People remember the state president of the BJP saying in 2021 that when the party wins 35 to 40 seats in Kerala, it will form a government.
It's a low number for leverage and has therefore led many to speculate that the party's confidence is based on other means to get elected representatives aboard.
That such a comment could be publicly made without censure by the relevant authorities has been taken seriously by those wishing to preserve secularism in Kerala.
While Anvar's single biggest blow to the CPI-M has been the ADGP-RSS meeting being made public, that and the no holds-barred manner in which he gave political expression to what has so far been discontent with the LDF government spoken of at the level of household chatter, is perceived by some as the lowest point the CPI-M has fallen to in Kerala, in recent memory.
On October 3, the media reported that Anvar would be forming a new political party. By then, another controversy had broken out.
When an interview granted by the chief minister to a leading English daily (it was published on September 30), kicked up controversy over references therein to Malappuram's share in gold smuggling and hawala transactions (with further observations that some of it was funding extremist activity), the chief minister's office contended that the sentences weren't his.
The newspaper claimed that it was added at the request of a PR agency but at a press conference on October 3, the chief minister said there was no agency contracted by the government.
In the room, at the time of interview, were an old acquaintance of Vijayan (who seems to have had a role in facilitating the interview) plus an as yet unidentified individual.
In the eyes of many, ownership of those sentences (which the daily said were added after the interview proper) has still not been convincingly established.
On October 4, leading Malayalam dailies were full of the dodging and evasiveness the chief minister reportedly showed at the press briefing.
Shyam G Menon is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com