MA Baby expresses his belief that there is no anti-incumbency sentiment in the state and that “people are trying to ensure continuity of governance. File photo: Arrangement
Letters and ideas sit more comfortably up CPI(M) general secretary MA Baby’s sleeve than power, though his party has been in power in Kerala for 10 years.
“I would rather say we are in office. The power is with the people,” he said over lunch of Surmai fish biryani during a lunch break campaigning in central Kerala.
Earlier in the day, he inaugurated a convention of left-wing cultural activists. Mr. Baby is not comfortable with the idea of inaugurating it. “I am not greater than any of you… Since the inauguration is a formality, I declare that we have all initiated it together.
Mr. Baby believes that the fight against communism lies in the field of culture. File. | Photo credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN / THE HINDU
Mr. Baby believes that the fight against communism lies in the field of culture. “Cultural intervention and intervention into culture,” he said.
The LDF candidate in Thrissur, considered the cultural capital of Kerala, is Alankode Leelakrishnan, a poet. “The first is about deploying cultural tools, poetry, movies, etc., for progress; the second is about interfering with people’s cultural behavior – for example, why should children bear the names of their fathers and not their mothers?”
Thrissur became the first Lok Sabha seat to be won by the BJP in Kerala in 2024. On Thursday night, a BJP candidate’s rally in neighboring Manaluru was contested by an LDF rally. “The growth of communal politics represented by the BJP is the biggest challenge for Kerala. The BJP mainly attracts non-left voters, but in some areas our supporters are also tempted,” he said.
Mr. Baby believes that the Congress, his party’s main rival in Kerala but a partner against the BJP in many other parts of the country, does not understand the threat of communal fascism in the country. “The Congress is against the BJP only to the extent that they want power for themselves,” he said.
Mr. Baby moves freely from prose to poetry and historian Eric Hobsbawm to Malayalam poet Vailoppalli Sreedhara Menon and Valdimir Lenin to make his point. Kerala’s cultural heritage is deeply indigenous and ideas of equality and equity are not imported from abroad, as Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently suggested in a parliamentary debate on Maoism, Mr. Baby said. He quotes Ayya Vaikunda Swami, also known as Vaikundar, a 19th-century social reformer from present-day Kerala. “He spoke for social equality and even assumed socialist ideas. He was born ten years before Karl Marx. Some of my comrades are concerned when I say this, but the reality is that all cultures carry some desire for a more just society,” he said.
For the first time in the history of Kerala, the same front and the same chief minister have been in office for two consecutive terms and they are aiming for a third. The Left must stand for change, but in Kerala it is continuity in which the party sees virtue.
“This is about the continuity of Kerala, not about a party or a front. The alternative model that has evolved in the state over decades should not be disrupted. In the last ten years, there has been dramatic progress in this model and it needs to be continued. In the current period, Pinarayi’s government has eradicated absolute poverty in the state; and now we must continue in the same direction. That is why we are seeking a third term.”
The party chief is confident that there is no anti-government function in the state. “People are concerned about ensuring continuity of governance,” he said, but remained non-committal on whether Mr Vijayan himself would serve a third term as chief minister. “We always take that decision after elections. The Chief Minister himself has made it very clear.”
Published – 03 Apr 2026 22:26 IST
