There were not hundreds of fans, ready to tear down anyone who said a word against their cultural icon – the way it happens when the big stars of Malayalam cinema are a wee bit criticised. It was a few dozen people gathered at the Ayurveda College in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday evening to take out a rally in support of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, the man who has brought home quite a few national and international recognitions for the films he’s made. The same man who has been recently insulted by a BJP leader, for writing a letter with a few other filmmakers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, about those chanting Jai Sri Ram while lynching Muslims and Dalits and other minorities of this country. BJP leader B Gopalakrishnan said Adoor could go to the moon if he has a problem with the chants.
“In the parliament these days, when the Prime Minister comes, when the Speaker comes, there are chants of Jai Sri Ram. The same term which has almost become a slogan for murder politics is used to welcome the PM. He should tell his people not to use the same chant when they kill,” said Communist leader MA Baby, who was in the front of the rally, carried out by cultural activists in the city capital.
The march ended at Gandhi Park, and various artistes and activists came to a stage to speak and sing, in support of Adoor – Pushpavathy, Bina Paul, Harikumar, Sreekutty, B Ajithkumar, VK Joseph, Renjini Pillai and others. “This attack against Adoor – who is our cultural pride -- is not the first such. MT Vasudevan Nair – veteran writer – too had been similarly abused. And if you go further back, there are the rationalists who were killed -- Pansare, Dabholkar, Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. You and I may not be as famous as them, but every one of our lives is valuable. There are so many people being killed, threatened by fascist violent politics. This kind of murder politics was first used against India’s greatest political icon Mahatma Gandhi. No one else is bigger than him. They think, if they can kill him, they can kill anyone,” Baby said.
Baby, a CPI(M) politburo member, also spoke about the ‘buying’ of people’s representatives, referring to the recent episode in Karnataka assembly. “The fascist Sangh Parivar forces scare or buy people to overpower them. Filmmakers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Shyam Benegal and Mani Ratnam said it is not right. Don’t kill those you disagree with, let there be different voices. The world is a family and great ideas are born in every corner. So do not force your ideology down India’s throat.”
All pictures clicked by Sreekesh Raveendran Nair