I am not particularly fond of reviewing the writing of party-hacks or hired guns or mediocrities trying to fill their bellies. But citizens watching the struggle of the striking ASHA workers in Kerala’s capital city might be interested in how the ruling government’s toadies engage in logic- and plain fact-denying gymnastics to serve their masters. That is the only reason why I am taking apart this Facebook post by the (future) Secretary of the (yet to be formed) CITU-affiliated Kerala Fallacy-Peddlers and Outright and Recycled Lie Vendors Union (a post that surely must be reward for the production of such egregiousness-guaranteed discourse in ample quantities).

This post is by K K Shahina, but of course a whole bunch of minions, lackeys, crumb-seekers, and verbal thugs who serve the CPM would share these ideas, in their exact form. So this reading has nothing to do with the author and is not a comment on her nature or qualities; it is about the text. The text announces a clear breakthrough in the technology of recycling lies, which might turn the tables and change the very fate of the CPM itself.

The post begins as though it is a shift away from the earlier CPM view, that the strike is nothing but a conspiracy by its irrational enemies. It starts by hinting that it is a matter to be resolved by negotiations, though the author is clearly still seething about the SUCI is active presence in the struggle.  That might throw the reader off guard, which is an excellent way to introduce the outright lie that is presented soon after. “The government should increase the ASHA workers’ honorarium,” the author begins, throwing yet another red herring before she slips the lie in slyly: “The Health Minister says that she is ready [to give more]. That is likely to be true.”

Oops – where did that come from? News reports about the negotiations yesterday did not mention such an important willingness on the part of the state? The workers claim that their major demands were not discussed seriously at all.  What almost all news sources have reported was about the ongoing ball-kicking match between the state government and the union government. Veena George just parroted the CPM’s line (and even Brinda Karat is now a parrot of this hue) and threw the ball into the Union government’s court.

Maybe our author is privy to the innermost thoughts of the Health Minister? Actually, that reminds me of some ladies one often encountered on visits to old Taravads – of historically-privileged sudras in Kerala – in my childhood. These ladies were usually in charge of the betel-chew-pounder and also allegedly the secret thoughts and deep inner feelings of the powerful senior woman in the matrilineal Taravad and hence considered themselves entitled to pass judgments just about everyone, including occasional visitors like us. But we are not in Taravad-culture anymore, and no one cares a flying fuck whether Veena George coos about her fervent desire to increase the incomes of all ‘her ASHAs’ to journalists or if she cries into her pillow every night thinking about ‘her ASHAs’ on the street seared by the ruthless sun and soaked by terrifying thunderstorms. If Ms George feels that the government should indeed raise the workers’ remuneration, then she should stop playing silly games and speak like an elected representative and a leader of the people.

But the technology of recycling lies, surely the innovation (if not invention) that may be credited to the author, is truly revealed in the subsequent paragraph. The author is miffed that the striking workers demand a huge rise, three-fold, from Rs 7000 to Rs 21,000 a month. The peeved-tone is meant to conceal the LDF’s election manifesto promise of Rs 700 per day remuneration to scheme workers (which now the minions claim, was never a ‘promise’!!). It is almost five years now, and so the workers cannot be accused of being pushy with their demands. The workers are employed directly by the state, so they knock at its doors. They expect their elected government to negotiate with the union government on their behalf – and it is vile of the government to tell them to go stage a strike in Delhi or just against the union government by sitting in front of the AG’s or Governor’s office. Also, if that is the case, why did Elamaram Kareem ask for a substantial pay-hike for the ASHA workers back in 2014 — to the Kerala government — when the cost of living in Kerala was not as high as now?

It is slyness that marks this new technology of lie-recycling, as may be evident from the cunning description of ASHAs that follows — that “they are just volunteers in a Central Scheme,” and the state government can’t be asked to pay the ‘excessive’ amounts demanded. Yet another stroke meant to cover up the government’s own election manifesto promise! If you double-wrap the government’s unkept promises through the deft application of a sly hand, then your lie gets recycled perfectly!

Further, it also appears that with this tech, one act of recycling lies can support the recycling of other lies. The author’s demonstration of this seems to even provide proof that extra-blatant lies can be recycled thus – as we may say in the paragraph that follows the one discussed above. Now the author combines the two lies carefully slid into our consciousness to support her much-moaned conspiracy theory of the SUCI’s ‘political agenda’, and of it being ‘Arif Muhammad Khan’s B-Team.’

The latter is indeed a master-stroke of slyness, the equivalent of a sly wink, by which the authors drags in the SUCI activist S Mini’s partner, Shajar Khan who has been organising critiques of the new education policy in Kerala. After the first salvo of lying in which the alleged support of the NEP by the SUCI figured prominently, many decent academics in Kerala, whose political sympathies are anything but SUCI, protested at the slander. So, evidently, it needs recycling, and the application of technology of cunning is essential to this end. Thus the sly wink – only those who know can make out what it means. And since it is notoriously difficult to distinguish a wink from a blink, it carries two lies in one! That is, the gesture towards the alleged right-wing sympathies of the SUCI in the matter of education, and secondly, the hint that it is Shajar Khan who controls Mini, in the final analysis!

Yet another classic sly wink follows. This begins by recycling slur-like usages once thrown at some of us who support the workers by some dalit voices, however, only after voiding them of the drop of critique that they may have contained. For example, there was a time when the dalit intellectual A S Ajithkumar and other JEI male intellectuals used to constantly call me (and others) a ‘liberal’ as if it were a cuss-word of sorts. It was so common back then, that the author probably thought that the word might evoke an instant guilty complex in some of us at least; after all, back then, it was used against us in debates about the nature of social justice. The other group that uses ‘liberals’ as a word of abuse is the Hindutva supporters – let us not forget. So, once again, wink-and-blink, if you please!

Such a sophisticated little waltz, it almost made me forget to ask the question, what is so ‘liberal’ about supporting people asking for fair wages? That used to be more of socialism, once upon a time.  How can people who refuse the inherent masculinism at the heart of liberalism, be just called simply ‘liberal’? The wrapping here is in the form of a righteous-sounding claim: that her position on this matter, marked by such anguished distance from the ‘liberals’, and indeed the EPW (because it wrote an editorial calling for empathy with the workers), is not ‘politically fashionable’. Unlike the frivolous, short-lived nature of fashion, her position is solid as a rock. True that – when one has reduced oneself to a mere crony, sycophant, underling of power, you can’t move an inch. You HAVE to stay there, petrified by power, one way or the other. Throwing in a teeny bit of truth is a nice way to cover up larger lies but I suppose the author might be hoping and praying that no one notices.

As one reads on, one is convinced that not just slyness, but also righteous posturing is central to the recycling technology pertain to the reuse of lies. Because just after we have been given a taste of righteous complaints about the ‘liberal’ tendency to take positions that are mindful of the power imbalances that characterise any situation (and hence are just ‘political fashions’), our authors turns up the righteous heat: the striking is meaningless because its goals are not lofty enough. They are not fighting to become regular workers, are they? Just asking for higher wages, how vulgar! When the workers said that they work just as or more than regular workers and therefore needed a decent wage, our author and her friends dished out a new version of the tactic of substituting theoretical-and-historical appraisal for empathy, support, and solidarity (EMS was skilled at this, but at least his theoretical and historical emissions were more left-sounding, unlike this generation in the CPM). The author won’t even agree to the demand for a decent wage, but is ready to condemn them for not asking to be made regular workers! When starving people demand watery rice-gruel so that they can stay alive, will anyone blame them for not demanding biriyani? The answer may be no to most of us, but it must be necessarily yes, when such questions are part of the technology of recycling lies, and must be patented to the author!

The righteous posturing, as may be seen further, can be used to recycle horrible slurs, like those hurled directly at the striking workers by the author herself, such as the slander about them serving the interest of the BJP. Slyness and righteous-posturing are engaged in a beautiful slow waltz in this short paragraph. Or, three lies dancing, like the three witches in Macbeth. They are : (1)the sly attribution of full responsibility of raising the ASHAs’ remuneration to the union government, (2) the false claim that KAHWA has neither questions nor complaints about the union government, and (3) the vicious slur that the striking women are ‘welcoming’ the BJP every day. There is a ‘baby-lie’ that hangs on to the last of the three lies, too  – the claim that the protesters have a ‘protest-pandal’ when the only roof above the protest site is of menacing tree-branches and the blazing or thundering sky, and the only floor is that of the dusty or soggy footpath below.

Recycling lies might be more effective, the author hints, if combined with her own colossal ignorance. Using a ‘gender lens’, she warns, should not blind us to ‘larger politics’. It is regrettable, she wrings her hands, that ‘some feminists’ are getting all emotional and “holding an umbrella” to SUCI’s machinations. And then she goes completely nuts, it looks like, when she rues the manner in which “the feminist politics in making care-work exclusive to women, and underpaid service tasks are loaded exclusively on them” remains uncriticised.

I am not sure how such nonsense adds to the effectiveness of her lie-recycling technology, but maybe the aim is to throw some sand into our eyes so that we spend some time rubbing our eyes and forgetting the whole confounded shebang. I confess that it has worked on me.

The cherry on top is an absurd comparison with the Anna Hazare agitation, possibly hinting at a right-wing takeover. Maybe the lie-addicts will stop there, but the rest of us are screaming : oh, yes, oh, yes, let us therefore get the left to take over by behaving like a socialist political movement and a people-centred left government … That is what the workers are waiting for!

Such as the geniuses who serve our government today. Non-Malayalis, I am sure, are hanging their heads in shame.

I am adding the Malayalam gem here, for the purposes of historical documentation and the ease of patent filing too, for the genius-innovator/inventors, of course:

എസ് യു സി ഐ യുടെ നേതൃത്വത്തിലുള്ള ആശമാരുടെ യൂണിയനുമായി ഇന്ന് സർക്കാർ നടത്തിയ ചർച്ച വിജയിച്ചില്ല. ഒരു സമവായ ചർച്ചയാവുമ്പോൾ ഒരു മധ്യനില വേണം. ഇരുകൂട്ടരും വിട്ട് വീഴ്ചക്ക് തയ്യാറാവണം. അപ്പോഴേ ഒരു ചർച്ച വിജയിക്കൂ.

ആശമാരുടെ ഓണറേറിയം കൂട്ടാൻ സർക്കാർ തയ്യാറാവണം. തയ്യാറാണ് എന്നാണ് ആരോഗ്യമന്ത്രി പറയുന്നത് . അത് ശരിയാവാനാണ് സാധ്യത. ആയിരം രൂപ വെച്ചാണെങ്കിൽ പോലും വർഷം തോറും കൂട്ടുന്ന ഒരു നിലപാടാണ് സർക്കാർ സ്വീകരിച്ചു വരുന്നത്. അത് പോരാ, ഇനിയും കൂട്ടണം. അവർക്ക് ഇപ്പോൾ കിട്ടുന്നത് തുഛമായ തുകയാണ് എന്ന കാര്യത്തിൽ ആർക്കും അഭിപ്രായ വ്യത്യാസം ഉണ്ടെന്ന് തോന്നുന്നില്ല. എത്ര കൂട്ടണം എന്നത് , പല ഘടകങ്ങൾ പരിഗണിച്ച് എടുക്കേണ്ട തീരുമാനമാണ് .

ഇനി എന്താണ് സമരക്കാരുടെ നിലപാട് ? ഇപ്പോൾ കിട്ടുന്ന ഓണറേറിയം 21000 ആയി വർധിപ്പിക്കണമെന്നാണ് ആവശ്യം. 7000 ൽ നിന്ന് ഒറ്റയടിക്ക് 21000 ആക്കണമെന്നാണ്. കൂടാതെ പിരിഞ്ഞു പോകുമ്പോൾ 5 ലക്ഷം രൂപവീതം നൽകണമെന്നും . ഇത് വളരെ കൂടിയ തുകയാണ് എന്ന അഭിപ്രായമൊന്നും എനിക്കില്ല . പക്ഷേ ഒരു കേന്ദ്ര സ്കീമിലെ വൊളൻ്റിയർമാർക്ക് ഒറ്റയടിക്ക് ഇത്രയും തുക കൂട്ടിക്കൊടുക്കാനുള്ള സാമ്പത്തിക ഉത്തരവാദിത്തം ഒരു സംസ്ഥാന സർക്കാർ ഒറ്റക്ക് ഏറ്റെടുക്കണം എന്നത് പ്രായോഗികമല്ല . ഇക്കാര്യത്തിൽ ഒരു വിട്ട് വീഴ്ചക്കും സമരക്കാർ തയ്യാറല്ല. അങ്ങനെയാണ് ഇന്നത്തെ ചർച്ച പരാജയപ്പെട്ടത് എന്നാണ് ഞാൻ മനസ്സിലാക്കുന്നത്.

വളരെ അപ്രായോഗികമായ ആവശ്യം ഉന്നയിച്ച് സമരം ചെയ്യുകയും ഒരു വിട്ട് വീഴ്ചക്കും തയ്യാറാകാതിരിക്കുകയും സമരം നീട്ടി കൊണ്ട് പോകുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നതിന് പിറകിൽ മറ്റ് രാഷ്ട്രീയ അജണ്ടകളാണ് ഉള്ളത് എന്ന് കരുതേണ്ടി വരും. ഉന്നത വിദ്യാഭ്യാസ രംഗത്ത് ആരിഫ് മുഹമ്മദ് ഖാൻ്റെ ബി ടീമായി പ്രവർത്തിച്ചിരുന്ന ഒരു സംഘടനയുടെ നേതൃത്വത്തിൽ നടക്കുന്ന സമരമാവുമ്പോൾ സംശയിക്കേണ്ടി വരും.

എല്ലാ ലിബറൽ ബുദ്ധിജീവികളും പിന്തുണക്കുകയും EPW എഡിറ്റോറിയൽ വരെ എഴുതുകയും ചെയ്തു കഴിഞ്ഞ സാഹചര്യത്തിൽ ഇത് ഒട്ടും പൊളിറ്റിക്കലി ഫാഷനബിൾ അല്ലാത്ത നിലപാടാണെന്നറിയാം. തത്കാലം ഇത്രയും ഫാഷൻ മതി .

ആശമാരെ തൊഴിലാളികളായി പ്രഖ്യാപിക്കണം എന്ന ഒരാവശ്യം ഈ സമരക്കാർ ഉന്നയിക്കുന്നേയില്ല. മറിച്ച് ഓണറേറിയം മിനിമം കൂലിക്ക് തുല്യമായി കൂട്ടണം എന്നാണ് ആവശ്യം. ആശമാരെ തൊഴിൽ നിയമങ്ങൾക്ക് കീഴിൽ കൊണ്ട് വരണം എന്നും ഓണറേറിയം അല്ല ശമ്പളമാണ് വേണ്ടത് എന്നും ഇവർ ആവശ്യപ്പെടുന്നില്ല. എന്ത് കൊണ്ട്? അതാവശ്യപ്പെടേണ്ടത് സംസ്ഥാന സർക്കാരിനോടല്ല എന്ന് അറിയാവുന്നത് കൊണ്ട് തന്നെ.

ആ ആവശ്യം നിറവേറ്റാൻ ബാധ്യതപ്പെട്ട പാർട്ടിയോടും സർക്കാരിനോടും ചോദ്യങ്ങളോ വിമർശനങ്ങളോ ഇല്ലാതിരിക്കുകയും ആ പാർട്ടിയുടെ നേതാക്കന്മാരെ ദിവസേന സമരപന്തലിൽ സ്വീകരിക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുന്ന ഈ സംഘടനയെ സംശയത്തോടെ കാണാനേ കഴിയൂ.

ജൻഡർ ലെൻസിലൂടെ ലോകത്തെ നോക്കി കാണുമ്പോൾ ലാർജർ പൊളിറ്റിക്സ് കാണാതെ പോകരുത്. വൈകാരികമായി മാത്രം പ്രതികരിച്ചു കൊണ്ട് SUCI യുടെ രാഷ്ട്രീയ അജണ്ടകൾക്ക് കുട പിടിക്കുന്ന പണി ചില ഫെമിനിസ്റ്റുകൾ നിർവഹിക്കുന്നത് ഖേദകരമാണ്. കെയർ വർക്ക് സ്ത്രീകളുടെ മാത്രം ഉത്തരവാദിത്തം ആകുകയും കുറഞ്ഞ കൂലിയുള്ള സേവന പ്രവർത്തനങ്ങൾ സ്ത്രീകളുടെ തലയിൽ കെട്ടി വെക്കുകയും ചെയ്യുന്നതിലെ ഫെമിനിസ്റ്റ് രാഷ്ട്രീയം ചർച്ച ചെയ്യുന്നില്ല താനും.

വസ്തുതകൾ കണക്കിലെടുക്കാതെ വെറും വൈകാരികതയുടെ മേൽ നിലപാട് എടുക്കാനുള്ള സാഹചര്യമല്ല രാജ്യത്തുള്ളത്. അണ്ണാ ഹസാരെ സമരമൊന്നും മറക്കാറായിട്ടില്ല.