Thiruvananthapuram: The political sky of Kerala, long lit by the searing fire of a revolutionary sun, has darkened. V.S. Achuthanandan, one of India’s oldest and most uncompromising communist leaders, has passed into history. His voice, which once thundered in protest and reason alike, has now been silenced by time. Yet, his legacy lives vivid, thorny, unforgettable in the collective consciousness of a state he helped shape with vision, fury, and unrelenting resolve.
VS, as he was fondly and famously known, was not carved out of political grooming or academic elitism. He was sculpted by pain. Orphaned early and denied formal education in his formative years, he began life as a worker in a tailoring shop and later in a printing press. It was there that the early seeds of rebellion sprouted. He saw not just ink on paper, but injustice etched into every headline.
His entry into the Communist Party was not just ideological; it was visceral. The Punnapra Vayalar uprising of 1946, a workers’ revolt drenched in blood and crushed by princely might, left an indelible scar on VS’s soul. And from those ashes rose a man who would dedicate his entire life to dismantling oppression, whether it came cloaked in royal robes or capitalist contracts.
Though he scaled the highest office in the state becoming Chief Minister of Kerala in 2006 it was never power that drove him. In fact, power often seemed to sit awkwardly on his shoulders. VS was more at home among peasants than ministers, in the slums rather than secretariats. Even when ensconced in the corner office of Cliff House, his government quarters, his heart beat for the landless and voiceless.
He waged political battles not just across the aisle, but within his own party. When the CPI(M) veered off its ideological course, he was its loudest internal critic. When land was grabbed under the guise of development, he stood on the frontlines even as Chief Minister to challenge encroachments in Munnar. He was a paradox: a ruler who rebelled, a party man who dissented, a veteran who remained forever young in spirit.
VS’s connection with the masses was magnetic. Even in the era of social media and political marketing, he needed no stage-managed campaigns. A word from him, a wave of his hand, and crowds would swell. His language was not flowery or academic it was sharp, earthy, and deeply local. His speeches carried the smell of the soil, the sting of injustice, and the clarity of a working man’s logic.
To the poor and the middle class, he was a rare figure who never lost his ground. His ageing body, bent and slow in the later years, carried the weight of a movement, a history, and the unmet dreams of the dispossessed. And when his health declined, it wasn’t just a leader stepping back it was a collective heartbreak for those who saw in him a last remnant of a fading idealism.
Now that VS has left this world, Kerala stands in contemplative silence. His death marks not just the end of a long life it marks the departure of an era where politics had sincerity, where ideology had teeth, and where public life meant public service, not self-promotion.
VS was not perfect. He was often at odds with his own party, occasionally controversial, and never one to mince words. But it is precisely this rawness that made him real. In an age of polished politicians and manufactured consensus, he remained the stubborn truth-teller, the last uncompromising Marxist of Kerala’s old guard.
Even in his twilight, VS was more than a memory he was a presence. Now, as his body is laid to rest, his legacy rises. Every struggling worker, every dispossessed farmer, every student with a clenched fist and a dream in their heart will find something of VS in themselves. His battles from Punnapra to the Assembly are now chapters in the book of Kerala’s political identity.
VS Achuthanandan is no more. But like the evening sun that leaves behind a lingering glow, his life continues to light the path for those who dare to dream radically, speak fearlessly, and fight endlessly.
The revolutionary sun has set. But its embers remain, warming the conscience of Kerala for generations to come.