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Wife feels sad as controversies haunt EMS

D Jose in Trivandrum

The vacuum left by E M S Namboodiripad has been felt by the Communist Party of India-Marxist on many crucial occasions in the last one year.

As if reflecting this, a two-day seminar was held at Trivandrum in his memory - his first death anniversary would be observed on March 19 -- where comrades and intelligentsia poured out tributes for the departed leader.

Several leaders said the patriarch's absence was especially felt when the party leadership faltered in interpreting key party policies. The biggest crisis, many said, had involved the departed leader himself.

It was not that Namboodiripad was above controversies. He used to kick up a lot of controversies, but had the uncanny knack of settling them himself.

The government's move to erect EMS' statue at the historic Palayam Square has triggered a sea of communal and political protests, while the land acquired for setting up the EMS Academy is likely to get embroiled in a prolonged legal battle.

A group of non-resident Indians, who reportedly own the land, have already sent legal notices to the party in the matter.

However, regardless of the legal complications, CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet is set to lay the foundation stone for the academy tomorrow.

< A HREF=http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/feb/09kerala.htm> Collection of funds for the academy has also triggered its share of controversies.

Many have complained of extortion and torture by the party workers in their bid to raise about Rs 40 million for the project.

However, his family members, particularly his wife Arya Antharjanam, is very sad about the raging controversy over the statue and the academy.

"We are sad about this unsavoury controversies,'' Arya Antharjanam told Rediff On The Net on the eve of EMS' first death anniversary. ''He himself would not have preferred to have his statue erected. I don't know why the people cannot leave him in peace. It is unfortunate that the controversies which are not of his making are following him even in his death."

The controversies came at a time when the 78-year-old woman was struggling to reconcile with EMS' absence. She has even removed EMS' picture from the house where she is living now. "I can't believe that he is no more,'' she said. ''I quite often think that he is in the house of Malati (her daughter). It may be an illusion, but I feel his presence always. I often feel that he is sitting beside me and talking to me."

She also feels very sad that she could not nurse him towards the end of his life. "I had not accompanied him to the hospital on March 19, 1998 as I thought crowding of people would make it difficult for the doctors to treat him,'' she said. ''I was planning to go to the hospital with Sasi (eldest son), but by then he had departed this world."

Arya Antharjanam now lives with her daughter Radha. Radha, her husband and their daughter on leave home by 1000 hours every day, leaving Arya Antharjanam in the company of a servant till 1800 hours.

In the last three months, she has been unable to go out due to a swelling in her leg and has even stopped going to the temple. Though EMS was an atheist, he never tried to impose his ideology on his wife. Sometimes he used to accompany her to some temples.

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