The Unyielding Spirit of 94-Year-Old Kerala Human Rights Activist 'GROW' Vasu

Vasu, who was arrested recently in a seven-year-old case, refused bail in protest against the Kerala government.

(Photo: Accessed by The Quint)

"Someone moved over to Varghese and led him to a fissure in a rock, and made him sit there. He was visible only above his chest. Lakshmana ordered me to shoot. I held the barrel close to Varghese's chest. Only the length of the rifle separated us – just four feet. It was a .303 rifle. The day was 18 February 1970 and the time was 6.55 in the evening. As Varghese had earlier requested, I made a signifying 'shoo...' sound. I pressed the barrel against his chest. As soon as he shouted, 'Long Live Mao Unity! Victory to Revolution!' the firing was done. Varghese fell to his right. Thus, the very hand that had fed him the last morsel of rice, killed him."

These horrific words were from a confession note written by a rueful policeman describing what was, perhaps, the first encounter killing in Kerala, way back in 1970. Some years later, Constable P Ramachandran Nair, repentant and disturbed, handed over this note to Ayinoor Vasu, a fellow traveller of the slain Arikkad Varghese.

And Vasu, in turn, kept this a secret for 28 long years.

In 1998, when Vasu finally made it public through Madhyamam Weekly, Kerala was shaken. The Kerala High Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, leading to an intriguing court trial. The CBI Special Court convicted K Lakshmana, a former Inspector General in Kerala Police, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

"It was momentous as the first major sentence for a police officer for dreaded encounter killings in independent India, and Vasu's role was crucial," says lawyer and former legislator Dr Sebastian Paul.

Flip to 2023. On 29 July, the 94-year-old Vasu, better known as 'GROW' Vasu, was in his routine of umbrella-making when the police came for him.

He was arrested and produced before the Kunnamangalam Sub Judicial Magistrate Court, in a case registered against him and others seven years ago. It was in connection with a protest they had organised against alleged extrajudicial police killings of two Maoists in 2016.

Police sources said the arrest was carried out under the weight of a long-pending warrant. However, the real drama unfolded when the magistrate VP Abdul Sattar, in a customary fashion, granted bail to Vasu.

But Vasu, steadfast in his principles, refused to sign the document and instead chose imprisonment.

His message was clear. "Why prosecute me? Why not hold accountable the officers responsible for eight deaths in fake encounters? This is a double justice," he passionately argued before being escorted to jail. In response, the government initiated departmental action against the officers on duty who allowed him to voice his dissent.

Fearing public protest, the authorities have started some hurried efforts to let Vasu off and dissolve the case. When he was produced before the court three consecutive times, he refused to sign the bail document and went back to jail.

On the morning of Monday, 11 September, too, Vasu was produced before the court, only to have the same thing happen again.

From a Weaver to a Communist

What makes Vasu so pertinent to Kerala is his 75-year-long rebellious acts against social disparities and state oppression. Before independent India and unified Kerala were born, young Vasu became a weaver at Commonwealth Trust Handloom Weaving Company in Kozhikode in his mid-teens.

P Krishna Pillai, who broke away from the Congress party to organise the Communist Movement in Kerala, befriended him on his occasional visits to the factory to organise ComTrust labourers. Before Krishna Pillai died of snake bite, while staying elusive fearing state oppression in Travancore in 1948, Vasu fell in love with his ideology.

'GROW' Vasu.

(Photo: Accessed by The Quint)

"I found Comrade Krishna Pillai waiting for labourers in front of ComTrust Factory. He was the textbook for all the Communists in Kerala," Vasu said in a 2013 memoir.

Vasu was a cardholder of the undivided Communist Party of India. When the Party broke over irreconcilable ideological issues in 1964, he stood with the relatively radical faction, the newly formed Communist Party of India (Marxist) – or CPI(M).

Intense doctrinal war continued within the CPI(M), and in 1967, it further split after the short-lived Naxalbari peasant uprising in West Bengal. Vasu had no confusion. He moved further radical and supported the Naxalite Movement led by Charu Majundar in Bengal and Kunnikkal Narayanan in Kerala.

"Nobody in the world can confuse him against his will. He is the epitome of courage and kindness meeting into one man," describes KA Saifudheen, the young journalist who attempted to write Vasu's biography but gave up halfway.

"The trauma he endures while narrating the past incidents became terrible for me. At one point, I feared taking him through the horrors of the past will take a toll on his life," Saifudheen explains why he stopped writing Vasu's biography, after serialising eight chapters in a Malayalam weekly.

Vasu was part of the Annihilation Squad formed by Naxalites for Thirunelli-Thrissilleri action in 1969. He was arrested by police before Arikkad Varghese, commander of the action, was captured and killed.

"He continued in jail for over seven years as an under trial. When he was released from jail in the Janatha rule after Emergency, he was a withered man, mentally and physically. He was the one most brutalised by police," says Mundoor Ravunni, a co-accused in the case, acquitted in 1986.

How Vasu Became 'GROW' Vasu

Ayinoor Vasu became 'GROW' Vasu, when he launched Gwalior Rayons Workers' Organisation (GROW) in Mavoor, near Kozhikode in 1986. It was a vigorous trade union agitation in Kerala's history, demanding a reopening of Gwalior Rayons and Silk Manufacturing or GRASIM industries, Kerala's largest industrial unit.

An 18-month-long agitation culminated in a fast-unto-death satyagraha by Vasu and his colleague Moyin Bappu.

Senior politician CP John recollects the efforts taken by him to persuade Vasu to withdraw the agitation. "Chief Minister EK Nayanar wrote a personal letter to Vasu in his own handwriting, pleading him to relent. He conceded only after ensuring the government fully aligned with his demands," remembers John, who handed over the letter to Vasu.

Ten years later, the same Vasu was actively involved in another agitation. This time, demanding to shut down the GRASIM industries which had made human life miserable because of unregulated pollution.

"Vasu knows Pinarayi Vijayan is not EK Nayanar, and that politics in Kerala has changed a lot. Yet, he is still attempting to bring the government accountable for its acts he believes wrong," John says.

And the case Vasu raises is grave. Forty-six years after Naxalite Varghese was brutally killed, Kerala's ranges of forests heard the shocking sound of police bullets immediately after Pinarayi Vijayan took over as Chief Minister in 2016.

In November 2016, Kuppu Devarajan, Ajitha alias Kaveri, both Tamil Nadu natives, were killed in the Karulai ranges in Malappuram district. In March 2019, CP Jaleel, a Malayali Maoist, was shot dead in the backyard of private resort in the Lakkidi area of Wayanad district.

In October same year, Sreemathi alias Rema, Suresh alias Aravindan, Kaarthi and Manivaasam, all from Karnataka, were gunned down in tribal-dominated Attappadi in Palakkad district. In November 2020, Velumurukan from Tamil Nadu was murdered in Wayanad.

"Rights activists like Vasu doubt trigger-happy fake encounters in these killings and demand judicial inquiries. Hence, they are being silenced," Kerala's Opposition Leader VD Satheesan tells The Quint.

"It is an enormous act of shame by a Left Front government that a nonagenarian activist was sent to jail for expressing his dissenting views. The government should withdraw the case against him immediately, and bring him back from jail."

VD Satheesan

"You may disagree with his radical past. But throughout his life, he stood for the oppressed people. And, the issue he tries to raise is genuine and of huge importance," Satheesan adds.

On his imminent release, Vasu may return to ordinary routines of umbrella making. It is a trade he learned in the 1950s as an additional income source to buy a band set for the Communist Party. And approaching his 94th birthday soon, he may be visible in the suburbs of Kozhikode with his Maarivil Kudakal, meaning rainbow umbrellas.

"And his resolve will never waver," says Saifudeen.

(MP Basheer is a writer and journalist based in Kerala, covering South Indian political affairs and societal issues. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)