What stands out is the resemblance the present scenario has with the storyline of Animal Farm authored by George Orwell in 1944.

Those who have read Animal Farm are of the view that Napoleon and Snowball have close resemblance to Pinarayi Vijayan and V S Achuthanandan of the Kerala unit of the party.

Nearly 75 years after the publication of Animal Farm, which shot into fame as an eternal classic, the Communists in India are behaving as per the script penned down by George Orwell in this political farce.

Each week brings out a new scam associated with the leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The latest to hit the headlines is Thomas Issac, the Marxist multi-millionaire who is the finance minister of Kerala. Janam TV, a Malayalam TV channel telecast in its news bulletins on Sunday (February 4) that Issac got Rs 1,20,048 from the Government of Kerala for a rejuvenation therapy underwent by him for 15 days at the elite Kottakal Ayurveda Centre during December 2017.

Rejuvenation therapy is a kind of pleasure treatment which includes oil bath, steam bath, massaging and other physical treatment for re-energizing one’s carnal powers. The news channel beamed the reimbursement bill submitted by Issac to claim the money he spent for the rejuvenation therapy including room rent and the special diet he consumed during the 15 days. He did not leave out the money he spent for buying 15 towels with which he claims to have covered himself during the treatment.

The CPI-M in Kerala has been under the control of the Kannur lobby led by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.

The news about the rejuvenation therapy of Issac at government’s expense comes immediately after the reports that his colleague in the party Sreeramakrishnan who is the speaker of the legislative assembly of Kerala, got Rs 49,900 reimbursed from the exchequer for buying a pair of spectacles. “Ophthalmologists advised the Speaker to use only that special spectacles and that’s why he purchased it,” said a member of the Speaker’s personal staff.

Like his colleague Issac, Sreeramakrishnan too hails from a rich and powerful feudal family in Central Kerala. The news about Sreeramakrishnan and Issac comes immediately after the budget speech delivered by the latter last week when he reminded the people of Kerala that the State was undergoing a severe financial crisis due to the mismanagement of the Indian economy by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his finance minister Arun Jaitley.

The month of January 2018 saw K P Shylaja, the Marxist health minister of Kerala, getting Rs 28,000 reimbursed from the government. She also bought a pair of glasses prescribed by her ophthalmologist. Though there are limits on the amount the people’s representatives could get reimbursed for their medical expenses, this was overlooked and violated in the cases of Issac, Sreeramakrishnan and Shylaja, said a senior official of the department of finance, Government of Kerala.

Last year, the controversial minister Thomas Chandy had got an amount of Rs 2.5 crore which he spent for his treatment abroad. Though there is nothing surprising in the reimbursement, it may be noted that Chandy is the wealthiest of all politicians in Kerala. Chandy, a confidante of A K Antony, Oommen Chandy and Sharad Pawar enjoys a close rapport with both Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. But he had to quit as a minister in November 2017 following the Supreme Court verdict against him in an encroachment case.

The CPI-M in Kerala has been under the control of the Kannur lobby led by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. The party is getting ready to host its triennial State Meet at Thrissur later this month. The scams and the case against Binish Kodiyeri, son of Balakrishnan has already cast a shadow over the party. It is widely believed that Balakrishnan may be eased out in the backdrop of serious allegations of financial embezzlement against his son.

Yechury, with his ambition to become the Prime Minister of India, has a close resemblance to Napoleon

The CPI-M is facing a serious crisis as two major factions in the party are at each other’s throat over the issue of ties with the Congress. While Sitaram Yechury, party general secretary, and a close friend of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress supremo, is of the view that the party should have an electoral alliance with the Congress, former general secretary Prakash Karat and his faction are of the view that the party should have no understanding with the Congress.

But more than this, what stands out is the resemblance the present scenario has with the storyline of Animal Farm authored by George Orwell in 1944. The novel indirectly portrays the fighting between Bolsheviks and the Trotskyites in the then Communist Party of the Soviet Union over ideological issues. Napoleon and Snowball, two boars, are the main protagonists in the novel. Jones, the master of the farm was breeding up Napoleon and Snowball for sale.

“Napoleon was a large, rather fierce−looking Berkshire boar, the only Berkshire on the farm, not much of a talker, but with a reputation for getting his own way. Snowball was a more vivacious pig than Napoleon, quicker in speech and more inventive, but was not considered to have the same depth of character. All the other male pigs on the farm were porkers. The best known among them was a small fat pig named Squealer, with round cheeks, twinkling eyes, nimble movements, and a shrill voice. He was a brilliant talker, and when he was arguing some difficult point he had a way of skipping from side to side and whisking his tail which was somehow very persuasive. The others said of Squealer that he could turn black into white,” this was the description of the boars by Orwell.

Those who have read Animal Farm are of the view that Napoleon and Snowball have close resemblance to Pinarayi Vijayan and V S Achuthanandan of the Kerala unit of the party. In the present context, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury resemble the lead boars in Animal Farm. Who is playing the role of Napoleon and who is Snowball could be said only after the Hyderabad Party Congress scheduled for April 2018.

Yechury, with his ambition to become the Prime Minister of India, has a close resemblance to Napoleon while Karat with his vivacious nature is similar to the character Snowball. But he and his politburo member wife are known for their high-end lifestyle similar to that of Yechury.

The Kerala CPI-M’s secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan (popularly known as Cooper Balakrishnan because of his passion for expensive cars) is also a Napoleon-like character. He created history during his Kerala march held in 2017 by traveling in a custom built Cooper owned by a notorious smuggler in Malabar sending out the signal that all are equal in the CPI-M though smugglers and land encroachers are equal than others. [1]

Reference:

[1] https://www.ndtv.com/kerala-news/cpm-leader-used-mini-cooper-for-yatra-bjp-says-it-belongs-to-smuggler-1767703. ( NDTV: October 27, 2017)

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/controversial-mini-cooper-used-kodiyeri-jana-jagratha-yatra-now-tax-row-70727

(Oct 29, 2017 The News Minute)

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/lnzSoKVxtksos2iPAZADMK/Kerala-CPM-chief-rides-luxury-car-to-rally-stirs-controvers.html

(The Mint: October 26, 2017)