CPI(M) leader A.K Balan makes poignant FB post about his life, says he’s on the verge of ‘eviction’

Senior CPI(M) leader A.K. Balan, who was removed from the party central committee at the 24th Party Congress in Madurai late last week in accordance with the age cap of 75 years for party positions, made a poignantly reflective Facebook post on Saturday, recalling his early years in the party and also stating, figuratively, that he is on the verge of yet another eviction – from the AKG Flat this time. 

 Senior CPI(M) leader A.K. Balan, who was removed from the party central committee at the 24th Party Congress in Madurai late last week in accordance with the age cap of 75 years for party positions, made a poignantly reflective Facebook post on Saturday, recalling his early years in the party and also stating, figuratively, that he is on the verge of yet another eviction – from the AKG Flat this time. 

Mr. Balan recalls that the first Party Congress he attended was in Jalandhar in 1978 when he was a final year student at Kozhikode Law College. The journey was on a railway sleeper coach in a scalding summer. He was State joint secretary and Kozhikode district president of the Students Federation of India and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was State secretary. It was M.K. Kelu’s (Kelu ettan) intervention that secured him the chance to attend the congress. He remembers taking a picture with Jyoti Basu, who was West Bengal Chief Minister. Other attendees from Kozhikode were A. Kanaran, V. Dakshinamurthy, T.P. Dasan and U. Kunhiraman.  

Each Party Congress was an experience, and he recalls that the shine of the fine white attire of the delegates from Bengal dulled with each congress. “This change hasn’t happened to the delegates from Kerala,” he writes.  

Mr. Balan also reflects on the heyday of the party when it ruled three States and played a critical role in the Left Front aiding the formation of the first United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre. Its retreat began after the 14th congress. He calls the Left government led by Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala a “small island of hope.” 

He says a phone call from Thalassery MLA and Speaker in the State Assembly A.N. Shamseer the other day transported him to a time when he studied at Brennen College, Thalassery – when he lived by hair’s breadth, his first speech on a stage in the presence of E.M.S. Namboodiripad, when Pinarayi Vijayan challenged K. Sudhakaran, Sudhakaran’s retreat, him saving Sudhakaran who had sought refuge in the principal’s room.... 

He also writes about 1967-69 when C.H. Muhammad Koya, Education Minister in the EMS-led government, was at Brennen to inaugurate a building amidst a protest by K. Sudhakaran and how he saved CH, and inspired by his moving speech, shouted a slogan saluting CH, as M.N. Vijayan fondly looked on.

Mr. Balan’s remembers his close relationship with Kodiyeri. When he sat beside his ailing mother in her final days, she said the party workers would forget him if he continued to sit there. “Her advice that one should go to the people to remain in their memory cannot be forgotten. How many more classics to be read to fathom the illiterate mother’s class consciousness,” he asks.