Azhikode Discovers a Bird (or Dog) that Dirties its Own Nest…(or Party)

Prof Sukumar Azhikode says no bird dirties its own nest: news

But some birds do dirty other's nests or name...!

A few years ago when Prof M N Vijayan was leading the charge against ‘revisionists’ in CPM with Patam magazine as his weapon of mass destruction, I had written an article in Madhyamam weekly castigating the professor, calling him a revolutionary post retirement.

I recently included this article in my collection of essays published earlier this year, but in the past five years since the publication of this piece, my own views on the CPM and its inner-party struggle have undergone a sea-change. Those days, I felt Prof Vijayan and his gang of storm-troopers were playing a game of partisan politics in the party, and I felt the young leaders were the victims in this manhunt. Hence I strongly supported them and described Vijayan a person who had done immense damage to the future of the party.

But in the past five years, the situation has changed tremendously and now it is the young leadership who seem to be taking the party to ransom. They have made the inner-party debates a matter of convenience, they have converted the party into a place for summary trials and instant justice throwing out hundreds of cadres for no reasons whatsoever, and other similar actions which convince me that Prof Vijayan, after all, was prophetic. This is what he had foreseen and this is what he wanted to stop. He was right.

He died speaking about it, his last words being a reminder of why we should keep on raising our voice, why should we keep our memories fresh. He was defending the harsh words used by his magazine, though personally he had never used any such words. He was a soft-spoken man who, however, never compromised on his principles.

Now when I watch Sukumar Azhikode, his foul-mouthed utterances against a veteran politician like V S Achuthanandan in full flow, I was reminded of M N Vijayan and his graceful way of criticism. Azhikode is a painful reminder that we have lost the civilized way of public criticism, that our intellectuals now resemble hired thugs. His recent interview with Mathrubhumi weekly was a shabby act, where he likens the chief minister to someone who dirties his own place of rest.

Well, he has now dragged in Henry David Thoreau to clean up. He says he was quoting Thoreau, who was speaking about the bird which never dirtied its nest, but was misquoted by the magazine and misunderstood by the chief minister and the public. Well, what it tells me is one thing: That Azhikode is a man who has his foot in the mouth.