CPM leader M Swaraj severely criticized the News Hour discussion on Asianet News Channel. The note he shared is as follows, Yes, Palestine is in Kerala… “Wherever a man’s hands are in chains, his hands are numb – where is the beating, where the blows fall outside me…” Anywhere in the world, when a man is tied with chains, it is his hands that hurt. It was NV Krishnawaryar who wrote from his heart that even when he is beaten, the blow falls on his own body. In the poem ‘Afrika’, NV continues, “Manusha, where I rise up, I am alive. I cry because of the sorrow of the land that is Africa.. ” The poet declares that today the name of his land is ‘Africa’.
Asianet did not exist when NV Krishna Warrier wrote ‘Africa’. So ‘Africa in Kerala? He didn’t even have to hear the question. It was the DYFI that went door to door and collected food grains to help the Cuban people who were suffering due to the American embargo and delivered them to Havana. ‘Cuba in Kerala? No one asked that. When the imperialist occupation turned Iraq into a graveyard, thousands of babies died without access to life-saving drugs. As soon as the heart-wrenching news came out, it was DYFI who rushed to medical stores and hospitals to collect medicines and deliver them to Baghdad. Iraq in Kerala? No one has ever heard a question like that.
The question of ‘Nicaragua in Kerala’ never came up even when student-youth fighters left for Nicaragua as members of the ‘Coffee Brigade’ with anti-imperialist slogans to help the Nicaraguan coffee farmers. An earthquake occurred in Latur, Maharashtra when I was studying in high school. On hearing the news of thousands of deaths, we decided to join the SFI Unit Committee to collect relief funds. When the funds were collected with a bucket, not a single person in the countryside asked ‘Maharashtra Kerala?’ The question was not raised. So many experiences. Does Asianet know that there is not a single college or street in Kerala where there is no demonstration against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela? Does Asianet know the history of colleges around the world that stood in solidarity with Vietnam against America?
Has Asianet heard the history of that storm of struggle even in American colleges and the American army shooting and killing its own students? Does Asianet remember that within minutes of Al Jazeera TV announcing the hanging of Saddam Hussain, the students who held an anti-imperialist protest in Thiruvananthapuram symbolically hanged the President of the United States? Kerala is a land that flies the flag of universal humanity. The Malayalis are among the people who are “rising up”. What is happening in Palestine is a human cruelty that has not been seen anywhere in recent history.
A human creation incomparable to any other. It is the duty of everyone on earth to stand in solidarity with the remaining people of Palestine who are drowning in the blood of their own people. Here we perform that duty. So “Palestine in Kerala? ” To those who ask, we assure you: Yes, Palestine is in Kerala. It is in Kerala. Those killed there are our brothers. “Palestine in Kerala? “Those who have raised the obscene question of apoliticalness, come out of the studio and see. Today, the flag of Palestine is flying all over the world. The people of the world, where humanity has not lost its hand, are shouting slogans for Palestine. More than 300,000 people took part in the protest rally in London. Palestine in London? No media has raised the question.
You have a right to believe that unless a Zionist missile hits a palm grove, none of this will affect them. You are also free to lock your conscience outside a few corners of the studio to please the boss who has proven that not only parliamentarianship but ministership can be bought. But don’t forget that your salary smells like the blood of murdered babies, friend of yours who sits around snoring and mocking even when the cries of babies are resonating around the world.
