Description

Your threats are not going to intimidate me. Then why make such unnecessary statements?’ – Pinarayi Vijayan, to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

The RSS feed on fear. Fighting them requires depriving them of it. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerela, was born in Kannur, ground zero of RSS terror. He has seen the worst that they have to offer. And he’s not afraid.

At a time when democracy is in danger, with an organization bent on dismantling the secular tradition of India holding the reins of power at the centre and in many states, Vijayan’s bold pronouncements challenging the BJP-RSS combine have a comforting quality. They remind us of the spectre in our midst – dividing people, suppressing women, stifling dissent, while slyly doing the biding of the neoliberal elite. More importantly, they reassure those on the left that all is not lost.

The battle for a secular and democratic India, against a sectarian and totalitarian RSS, is winnable. Pinarayi Vijayan is proof of that.

Pinarayi Vijayan (born 1945) is the Chief Minister of Kerala. He served as Minister of Electric Power and Co-operation from 1996 to 1998. He joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1964. He is a member of the party’s Polit Bureau and served as Secretary of the Kerala State Committee from 1998 to 2015.