'He lowered his head like never before’: Lensman C Biju's visual memory from CPM’s Alappuzha conference 2015
It is the dream of any news photographer to be able to take different pictures of political leaders. Most photographers in Kerala must have kept many pictures of V S Achuthanandan in their collection. It is also rare to get so many pictures of a senior leader of a movement like the CPM in different styles. The uniqueness of his body language and the diversity of the issues he intervened in may have made V S the subject of such pictures.
From the early protest pictures, the interventions he made when he was the Leader of the Opposition and then his activities after becoming the Chief Minister, to the pictures of Pinarayi Vijayan–VS meetings when the party was divided, they were completely different.
Although countless pictures of VS have been taken, the pictures of the CPM state conference held in Alappuzha, which preceded the 21st Party Congress, stand out from all of them. The party conference came to Alappuzha, VS's home, after a gap of many years. These are the images of VS, who was synonymous with fighting spirit, who never retreated in the face of protests and internal party struggles.
The conference began in Alappuzha on 20 February 2015, in an explosive atmosphere, with the statement by Pinarayi Vijayan that Achuthanandan had an anti-party attitude, and VS's reply that he would reject it with the contempt it deserved. The day before the inauguration, VS arrived with complete seriousness at the stage where the flag was hoisted by the welcome group chairman G Sudhakaran outside the public meeting venue at the Alappuzha EMS Stadium. He stood with the leaders without speaking to anyone. While the other leaders shared their friendship, VS showed all his arrogance and determination on his face. When the party flag was raised on the van, the leaders including Pinarayi Vijayan clenched their fists and shouted slogans. But VS stood there with a tense face, showing all his displeasure and rigidity. Just as the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly is the Leader of the Opposition in the party.
On the second day of the state conference, an attempt was made to mark VS through three pictures. In the morning, leaders arrived at the Vayalar Martyrs' Hall in Punnapra to pay floral tributes. VS, who arrived earlier, sat on the first chair in the second row where the chairs were placed. The venue where the memories of the martyrs are remembered. The venue where he lights the torch every year for the Martyrs' Week celebrations. VS, who was always in the front row, was photographed that day. By the time the picture of him sitting in the second row was taken, the party's national secretary Prakash Karat and other leaders had arrived. While Karat was sitting on the first row, VS was invited to the front. VS, as if he was waiting for the invite from Karat, came to the front. Even when he reached the SK Auditorium in Kalarkode, the city of the conference, the tense atmosphere did not change. When all the leaders left the conference venue to pay floral tributes to the mandapam prepared along the national highway, V S sat alone on the conference stage with a determined expression on his face.
As the senior representative participating in the conference, VS raised the flag in the conference city. But in the wake of the developments of the previous days, he was not allowed to give a flag-hoisting speech. All that sadness was on his face. He lowered his head, which he had never lowered that day. He stood there, ignoring everyone, holding onto the fence erected around the flagpole, as if wondering whether to go inside the fence erected by the party or outside.
VS, who always surprised the leaders and the party with his agile movements, left the conference venue on the second day. That exit that shocked political Kerala also shocked photographers who were waiting to get different pictures of VS that no one had got of him leaving the venue. While the party conference was progressing, VS was in his house, a short distance from the conference venue, without making any changes to his routine and habits with a never-ending fighting spirit.