‘People are the masters of the movement’: Achuthanandan’s son drops veiled message for CPI-M

Thiruvananathapuram: At a time when the CPI-M is battling perhaps its most difficult political phase in decades, a social media post by V.A. Arunkumar, son of veteran Communist leader and former Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Monday has acquired a significance well beyond its carefully measured words.

Without naming anyone, Arunkumar has spoken of the concerns among grassroots workers over contemporary political controversies and campaigns and called upon the leadership to speak openly to the people and politically confront such challenges.

But it is his reminder that the Communist movement was built not on the interests of any individual but on the blood, sweat, and faith of generations of poor people that has set political tongues wagging.

The most pointed passage invokes his father.

“As my father always reminded us, the people are the masters of the movement, and their trust is its greatest capital,” Arunkumar wrote, before calling for ideological clarity, transparency and a movement that remains rooted in the problems of ordinary people.

Coming from Achuthanandan’s son, the message inevitably carries an additional political resonance.

The CPI-M-led Left is yet to recover from its stunning electoral defeat in the 2026 Assembly election, when the Left Democratic Front’s tally collapsed from 99 seats to just 35 in the 140-member House.

The rout came after the Pinarayi Vijayan government had entered the election campaign hoping to make history by securing an unprecedented third consecutive term.

The result instead marked a dramatic repudiation of those expectations and has triggered questions within the Left about its organisation, leadership and its connect with ordinary voters.

It is against this backdrop that Arunkumar’s invocation of his father’s political philosophy assumes importance.

Achuthanandan and Vijayan have for decades represented two sharply contrasting currents within the Kerala CPI-M.

Their bitter rivalry reached its high point when both were suspended from the party’s Politburo. Vijayan was subsequently reinstated, while Achuthanandan was not.

The political equation changed decisively in 2016.

Achuthanandan, then the Leader of the Opposition and the face of the Left’s campaign, helped propel the LDF to victory.

But after the election, it was Vijayan who emerged as Chief Minister, while Achuthanandan was moved out of the centre of political power.

There has also long been speculation within party circles about the political treatment meted out to Arunkumar himself.

The grapevine has it that attempts to secure him a prominent position in a crucial post did not find favour with the Vijayan camp.

The allegation has never been publicly established, but it has remained part of the political lore surrounding the two families.

That history makes Arunkumar’s choice of words particularly intriguing.

He does not attack Vijayan, does not mention the former Chief Minister, his government or even the party leadership by name.

Nor does he directly refer to the controversies currently confronting the CPI-M.

Instead, he speaks of individual interests, transparency, mistakes, the doubts of ordinary people and, above all, the people’s trust as the movement’s greatest capital.

It also comes at an especially sensitive moment for the Vijayan family, with his daughter Veena Vijayan facing continuing ED scrutiny over the controversies surrounding her business dealings.

Arunkumar’s post does not mention her or the issue.

But politics is often read as much through what is left unsaid as through what is said.

And at a moment when the CPI-M is searching for answers after an electoral disaster, the son of one of its most iconic leaders has chosen to remind the party that the people, not individuals, are the masters of the movement.

That is a message the CPI-M leadership can hardly miss.

IANS