Thiruvananthapuram: Hours before the crucial Nilambur bypoll, the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) are locked in a war of words over past ties with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The row erupted after CPI(M) general secretary M.V. Govindan, during a TV interview, referred to a post-Emergency alliance involving the RSS, drawing sharp criticism from the Opposition, which accused the Left of hypocrisy even as it targets the UDF for accepting Jamaat-e-Islami’s support in the Nilambur assembly bypoll.
On the sidelines of the campaigning, CPI(M) general secretary M.V. Govindan was asked in a TV interview how the party could attack the UDF’s engagement with Jamaat when it too has worked with such forces. He replied that while the Left had never politically aligned with Jamaat-e-Islami, there had been instances of support. He went further, referencing past ties with the RSS during the post-Emergency period.
“RSS was formed in 1925. But we never supported their stand. After the Emergency in 1967, didn’t we join hands with the RSS? That was the situation then. The RSS is a communal force, but during the Emergency, when the country was heading towards fascism, everyone opposing it stood together, in Kerala and across India,” Govindan said in the interview to Mathrubhumi Wednesday.
The Janata Party, formed in 1977 to oppose Indira Gandhi’s regime, had brought together the Jan Sangh, Bharatiya Lok Dal, and Socialist Party—an alliance that saw cooperation from the CPI(M) as well. The coalition’s landslide win saw Morarji Desai become the first non-Congress Prime Minister.
But the statement triggered a political firestorm in Kerala, a state where BJP, which considers RSS as its ideological parent, is aggressively trying to find footing, but still struggling.
Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said the timing of the statement was not a coincidence. “It may seem untimely, but this was a calculated move. Why is the CPI(M) remembering this past now? It’s a coded call for help—a signal to the RSS–BJP that they can be partners again,” he alleged Thursday. Satheesan said BJP’s initial reluctance to field a candidate in Nilambur hinted at tacit coordination with the Left. He also accused the CPI(M) of running a communal, Islamophobic campaign to win RSS support.
Incidentally, the CPI(M) has been attacking the Congress-led UDF for accepting the support of Jamaat-e-Islami in the aftermath of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, terming the organisation “communal”. The party renewed its attack recently after the organisation openly supported the Congress in the Nilambur bypoll. Being conducted months before the state’s Assembly election, the bypoll is considered a preview of the larger electoral battle ahead. Voting is to be held Thursday.
Satheesan alleged that the CPI(M) had colluded with BJP to defeat the Congress’s Rajiv Gandhi again in 1989. He produced a photograph of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Jyoti Basu, and E.M.S. Namboodiripad together to support his claim.
The 1989 general election saw significant changes in the Indian political and coalition history. With the Bofors scandal marring its image, the Congress’s seats came down to 197 from the 404 it got in 1984, followed by V.P. Singh’s Janata Dal (142) and the National Front. The Opposition led by the Janata Dal, formed the coalition government with the support of BJP and the left parties.
“One of the primary explanations for the success of the Dal was its ability to work out a significant number (89) of effective electoral seat adjustments with the other major opposition parties—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in northern and western India and the Left Front (the two Indian Communist parties and two small Marxist parties, the Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party) in eastern India. On 2 December 1989, V.P. Singh, the JD leader, was sworn in as Indian Prime Minister, and on 21 December 1989, the Janata Dal/National Front Government won a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha by a voice vote,” writes Lewis P. Fickett in the Asian Survey’s 1993 journal The Rise and Fall of Janata Dal.
“We have always maintained a single stand against the RSS. The allegations are just to create a controversy ahead of polls,” CPI(M) MLA from Malappuram’s Ponnani, P. Nandakumar, told ThePrint. However, Nandakumar refused to respond to the Congress’s allegation about the left alliance with the RSS and the BJP after the Emergency.
Govindan holds press conference
As the controversy gained traction, Govindan Wednesday held a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram, saying his words were being distorted to make him appear sympathetic to communal forces.
“The Emergency was a period of semi-fascism. The Janata Party, which we supported, was not just the Jana Sangh. It was a broad front of socialists, democrats, and Emergency opponents. Yes, Jana Sangh was part of it—but RSS was not a prominent force in that alliance,” he clarified. “CPI(M) has never formed and will never form a partnership with the RSS—past, present, or future,” Govindan said.
Earlier in the day, Nilambur candidate M. Swaraj also reiterated that the alliance in 1977 was necessitated by circumstances, but once the RSS’s influence in Janata Party grew, the CPI(M) backed off.
He said in the consecutive bypolls in Kasargode, Thalassery, Thiruvalla, and Parassala, Namboodiripad famously said the party doesn’t need RSS votes, reinforcing the Left’s commitment to secularism.
“We won all four seats. That statement boosted secular forces in Kerala,” Swaraj said.
The CPI(M) also pushed back by accusing the Congress of its own ties with the RSS during the 1958–59 Liberation Struggle. The Liberation Struggle was an anti-communist movement against the first Kerala government, backed by the Syro-Malabar Church, Nair Service Society, the Muslim League, and the Congress.
Congress candidate for the Nilambur bypoll Aryadan Shoukath too jumped into the debate, saying, “In 1977, the Congress lost power for the first time because the Left openly aligned with the Jan Sangh. We all know these alliances can return. Remember, L.K. Advani inaugurated V. Sivadasa Menon’s election convention in Palakkad.”
The Congress had earlier accused the CPI(M) of diluting its stand against BJP after the party’s draft resolution ahead of the 24th Party Congress used the word “neo-fascist” for the BJP. However, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member clarified that the resolution referred to “neo-fascism” and “neo-fascist tendencies” as they represented an ideological trend distinct from the “classical fascism” that emerged globally in the early 20th century.
In the party’s state conference in Kollam earlier this year, Prakash Karat said Modi government’s 11-year rule is showing “neo-fascistic characteristics” in its aggressive push for Hindutva and neo-liberal agendas, warning that it will develop into “full-fledged fascism, if not resisted”.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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