Kerala’s former Chief Minister (late) V S Achuthanandan – a leader who earned a place in people’s hearts and dared to speak against Islam !

The Red Salute offered by lakhs of ordinary people to former chief minister V S Achuthanandan, who passed away on Monday and was cremated at Alappuzha, has shocked the leaders of the CPI(M), who had politically buried him in 2019 itself. A person who spent the last six years of his life in total privacy and a state of coma, receiving unprecedented homage and tribute from the general public, is an unexpected development in Kerala. Achuthanandan, the uncompromising and copybook Communist who was an atheist and rationalist, never made fun of believers who practised their religions in private.

1. An atheist Chief Minister who never criticised others’ religious beliefs

He was the one and only CPI(M) leader who rebuked those who made fun of Matha Amrithanandamayi of Vallikkavu, popularly known as the Hugging Saint. “The facts that she was born in a lower class and is a woman should have made the people born in the upper class take cudgel against her. I may not be following her footsteps. But she is trying to transform the Indian society within the framework of the Indian Constitution, and this has to be appreciated,” Achuthanandan had told on a media interaction. At the same time, there were many allegations against Amrithanandamayi Ashram at Vallikkavu in Kerala’s Kollam district.

2. Achuthanandan exposed the hidden agenda of Muslim conversions

Achuthanandan stand out as a unique politician in the State for his boldness to call a spade a spade. It was during his tenure as chief minister that Achuthanandan chose to make his stance on Islamic extremism known to the world. “The Islamic extremist organisation have a hidden agenda to make India an Islamic majority nation by 2040. That’s why they are engaged in massive-scale religious conversion through Love Jihad,” said VS while addressing a media interaction at the National Press Club.

3. The Islamic tactic of sidelining or eliminating voices that speak against Muslims

Since that day, he was slowly eased out of the leadership of the party, of which Achuthanandan was the founder-leader. It is an open secret in Kerala that those who speak out against the Islamist terrorists become persona non grata for the Muslims. A K Antony, a devout Catholic, had to relinquish the post of chief minister for warning the Muslim League leaders that he would not be cowed down by their demand to scrap the move to hand the 2003 Maradu massacre investigation to the CBI. On 2nd May 2003, eight Hindu fishermen were slaughtered by Islamic terrorists at Marad beach, and the murderers were saved by the intervention of a Muslim League leader who went on to become a central minister.

Antony had no opposition to handing over the probe to the central agency, but the Muslim League, the second largest constituent in the Congress-led UDF, opposed it tooth and nail. Antony retorted in a UDF meeting and warned the Muslim League not to make him fall in line with threats. The Congress High Command had to obey the diktat issued by the League leadership, and Antony was shunted out to New Delhi lock, stock and barrel. Nothing is surprising in Anil Antony, the elder son of Antony, joining the BJP, as he has seen his father getting humiliated by the Congress and the League leadership.

4. Muslims filed criminal cases against those who openly opposed ‘Love Jihad’

Then there is the case of P C George, the maverick Kerala Congress leader who was a seven time member of the Legislative Assembly, George was the leader of the so called secularists but that did not prevent him from speaking openly against the Love Jihad being deployed by the Muslim community leaders to trap Hindu and Christian girls into marriages and sent the victims as sex traders to Islamic State strongholds in West Asia. Criminal cases are foisted on George each time he delivers a speech.

5. Muslim opposition to Oommen Chandy and Vellappally for acting against Muslim interests

Oommen Chandi also earned the wrath of the Islamic leadership for his resistance against the Muslim League’s demand that the party should be given a fifth ministerial post in the Oommen Chandi cabinet (2011-2016). The latest entry into the persona non grata list is Vellappilli Natesan, general secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP Yogam), who questioned the extra-constitutional role being played by the Islamic community leaders in the Kerala government. Natesan questioned the statement made by Muslim community leaders in the State against the changes made by the Government in school timings. They alleged that the alterations made in school hours would make it difficult for the Madrasas (religious schools where Muslim community students are indoctrinated with the teachings of the Quran).

6. Professor Joseph’s right hand was chopped off for an alleged anti-Muslim remark

These are in addition to incidents like chopping the right hand of Prof T D Joseph, a professor at New Man’s College, Thodupuzha, allegedly for making anti-Islamic statements. Neither the Church, which manages the college, nor the Kerala Government, run by secularists, came to the help of Joseph. The Congress and CPI(M), the two major political outfits, remained tight-lipped about the attack on Prof Joseph.

It was in this landscape that Achuthanadan had to wage a battle against the Mullas and his comrades. The CPI(M) has become a stooge of the Islamist extremist organisations. The party went to the extent of welcoming a Hamas leader who made hate speeches across the length and breadth of Kerala. Persons questioning the propriety of the secularists, particularly that of the Islamists, lose their right to survive in Kerala..

– Article by: Mr Kumar Chellappan, Senior Journalist, Kerala (31.7.2025)