It was a monsoon-soaked morning in Thiruvananthapuram on June 22, 1959. Prime Minister Nehru landed at the capital’s airport by a special aircraft from Delhi to be received by Chief Minister EMS Namboodiripad, and others. The Prime Minister’s visit was to personally examine the reported collapse of the state's law and order following the “liberation struggle” ( ) against the EMS ministry, India’s first non-Congress and Communist state government.
Spearheaded by Christian churches and Hindu caste organisations like the Nair Service Society (NSS) and backed by the Congress-led Opposition, including the Muslim League, the struggle was marked by widespread violence and counter-violence. All along the Prime Minister’s route from the airport to the Raj Bhavan, crowds stood on the sides shouting slogans and raising placards demanding the two-year-old EMS ministry’s dismissal by the centre. When they met again in the evening, Nehru asked EMS, “How could you make so many enemies in such a short time?” Back in Delhi, a hesitant Nehru, under pressure from his daughter and Congress President Indira Gandhi, had President Rajendra Prasad dismiss the EMS ministry on July 31.
It shouldn’t be surprising if Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan faced the same question Nehru asked EMS today. Since 1959, few state governments in Kerala have faced the kind of all-around hostility that the present three-year-old Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has, as shown in the recent Lok S.