Red Ants In A Line

Vijoo, 44, is the joint secretary of the AIKS, which is also the farmers바카라� wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Keeping alive its anti-feudal spirit, the AIKS scored a rare victory with its 바카라�Kisan Long March바카라� this month. Rou­ghly 40,000 men and women of all ages바카라�visibly from the weather-beaten sections of society바카라�walked for six days, 180 km, all the way from Nashik, on one edge of the Deccan plateau, to Mumbai. Wearing the marks of their harsh life with quiet dignity, they won many admirers and sympathisers in their week-long passage, both along the route and in proliferating media images.

With good reason. It etched itself into public memory with a very visual appeal: the march created mome­nts of awe with a red stream of flag-holding farmers moving in silent discipline down rolling hills to the country바카라�s commercial capital by the sea. Callused old feet or broken chappals lent themselves to striking soc­ial media memes. But at the centre of it was a zone of diligence. This wasn바카라�t just spectacle, or a hysteric ans­wer to a call by a leader바카라�or even a spontaneous people바카라�s reaction, says Vijoo, an alumnus of Delhi바카라�s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Unlike recent mass uprisings in urban India, this march warranted painstaking grassroots mobilisation among the most disadvantaged sections. True, the AIKS is a large peasant organisation with members spread across India바카라�s varied geography. Also, after 82 years, it isn바카라�t a novice. Yet, this was a feat of planning바카라� Vijoo and his team were at the centre of the march even as the farmers remained the soul and face of it. And, as Vijoo notes and not many would disagree, 바카라�This one truly touched the people바카라�s heart.바카라�

The generalised pro-peasant sentiment it triggered바카라�with no one able to belittle it바카라�comes weathering two uncomfortable points, though. One, the gho­sts of Nandi­gram and Singur still haunt the CPI(M). Two, one swallow does not make the summer: the party still faces an exi­stential crisis after the loss in Tripura reduced it in India바카라�s power matrix to virtually a one-state party, with a lone flag on Kerala.

There were indeed snide remarks by trolls about the march being 바카라�red terror바카라�, a handiwork of 바카라�urban Naxals바카라�. Critics also didn바카라�t miss a chance to flay the 바카라�anti-­peasant바카라� approach of Kerala바카라�s ruling LDF (CM Pinarayi Vijayan, incidentally, is from Vijoo바카라�s  upstate Kannur district). On the other hand, sympathisers see in Vijoo and his team 바카라�true comrades바카라�바카라�a rare specimen these days. Some pin even grea­ter hope on the likes of Vijoo, seeing in them chances of a Left revival based on grounded social movements.

It took two months to mob­ilise farmers for the march, reveals Vijoo. The AIKS arranged water, food and other facilities along the route. 바카라�We did apprehend that people may object when they see red,바카라� Vijoo tells Outlook. In fact, the colour of the AIKS flag had triggered a debate during the Sabha바카라�s formation, when its founding president Sahajanand Saraswati famously said 바카라�red symbolises the blood of the farmers and the working class바카라�.

For the record, the AIKS was a child of the Congress바카라�and had the blessings of Nehru. Formed at the grand old party바카라�s Lucknow session on April 11, 1936, the AIKS was headed by Saraswati of the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha. That very year, it released a Kisan Manifesto dem­anding the abolition of zamindari and cancellation of rural debt. Soon, the AIKS distanced itself from the Congress and took on a pronounced socialist slant, asso­ciating with leaders like E.M.S. Namboodiri­pad, the Telangana Rebellion icon P. Sundarayya, Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan. In 1942, when it was legalised, the Communist Party of India took over the AIKS. Eigh­teen years later, when the CPI split, the AIKS became part of the CPI(M).

It was from Sundarayya바카라�s alma mater, St Joseph바카라�s College in Bangalore, that Vijoo graduated in the early 1990s. At JNU later, he was elected the students바카라� union presid­ent. Earning a PhD on 바카라�Neoliberal Policies: Impact on Indian Peasantry바카라�, Vijoo joined the political science department at St Joseph바카라�s. He subsequently got an interview call from JNU as a lecturer, but the passion for the farmer had grown on him바카라�and Vijoo joined the AIKS. One of the youngest members of the CPI(M)바카라�s central committee, he is a polyglot: 바카라�I can speak in 10 Indian languages.바카라�

For Vijoo and his team, March 6 loomed as the starting point of a highly challenging task. As organisers, they ensured that the farmers, coming from various parts of Maharashtra and mostly comprising tribals, assembled at Nashik by afternoon to begin their walk from Ghat Road. That task spanned seven hours바카라�till 10 in the night. The next day, they walked from 7 am till 8 pm. 바카라�For the first two days, the farmers had carried food from home. Later, they cooked on the way,바카라� he says. 바카라�So electric was the atmosphere that many among them sang or danced in the rest hours. Usually, I am poor at both, but this time I couldn바카라�t help myself join my comrades.바카라�

As a source of inspiration, Vijoo cites the Communist icon A.K. Gopalan바카라�s hunger march (pattini jatha) from Malabar to Madras 82 years ago. 바카라�My maternal grandfather brought AKG to his village and set up a Karshaka Sangham unit,바카라� he says. Cut to 2018, the plight of Mahara­shtra바카라�s farmers remains no different from those who marched in 1936. Yet, like under AKG back then, Nashik-Mumbai was a strikingly peaceful passage. It was only upon its culmination that many not­iced the significance of the date: March 12 was when Gandhi started for Dandi.