M A Baby
Simon Britto was born on the 24th of March 1954, and I was born just ten days after. We stepped into student activism together, shared the same politics, read together, and studied together. Soul mates, almost. However, it never crossed my mind that someone so close could just leave one fine day. Someone who fought hard for centuries to survive, live. Someone who lived beyond his physical limitations, quite extraordinarily. I haven’t uttered a word to the media. The truth that Britto is not a phone call away any more is something I have not been able to cope with.
Fort Kochi, 1977. SFI’s first state conference post-Emergency. That’s where I met Britto. Eventually I met him every time I visited Ernakulam during my SFI days. Britto was always there as a vibrant district wide leader. He later rose up to be a state committee member and later the vice president. Britto was known for his colourful clothes, especially his flamboyant bell bottoms. His exuberance made him stand out in any crowd. He was schooled at various places due to some hurdles, which led to him being my junior in SFI.
Pazhani, Oct 1983. SFI’s State Conference at Tamil Nadu. A comrade passed me a note as I was addressing the gathering. Comrade Simon Britto has been stabbed. Fatally injured, admitted at the Ernakulam Medical Trust Hospital. I was then the SFI All India President. Soon at Ernakulam the same day, I went to visit Britto with Betty and Nata Duvvury. It was uncertain whether he would survive and the uncertainty went on for a couple of days. He was stabbed multiple times on his spine, with a clear intention of murder. Dr Pulickan was with the Medical Trust back then. Comrade AP Varkey was the party’s district secretary, who took up complete responsibility to look after Britto. Dr Pulikan was told by Comrade Varkey that saving Britto was absolutely important. Thanks to a bunch of determined doctors, Britto was back.
People were easily attracted towards Britto’s magnetic personality. He made no compromises when it came to Party’s needs. Built of extraordinary sincerity, limitless love for his comrades, he was well read and a committed ‘cadre’ at taking party classes – all of it making him a much revered figure amongst us.
SFI was still growing in Kerala’s college campuses of the 1960s and only had a limited influence amongst students, despite leading some powerful protests under the Kerala Students’ Federation. However by the 1980s, post SFI’s formation in 1970 at Thiruvananthapuram, we had become Kerala’s biggest students’ organization. Congress’s KSU was in a majority in Kerala’s college campuses at the time. Ruthless physical violence was with what KSU countered SFI’s growing influence. Comrades were frequently attacked. Murdered. A section of the Malayalam media on the other hand repeatedly tried to push the constructed binary of the ‘violent Communists’ and ‘peace-loving bourgeois parties’. Simon Britto was a victim of the period’s KSU-violence. SFI’s counter to this rampant violence was to fight back by drawing the best of comrades to itself and Britto was one amongst them. That he was a living example of the fact that it’s the Communist Party that has borne the brunt of Kerala’s political violence, was something that Britto had even mentioned in one of his speeches as an MLA.
His physical limitations never led him to take a stand against the party. However, he used to ring me up whenever he thought the party needed to correct its stance about a particular issue or to share some concern about the party taking up an organizational decision. Britto would ring me up whenever and wherever there was an issue that troubled students, for instance. When students at the Maharajas’ College (Ernakulam) were at strike, Britto remembered to remind the party that the strike and its causes demanded more attention. This deep consideration for students and their struggles is what brought Britto so close to today’s student leaders of the state like Abhimanyu.
Britto often took the liberty to call comrades up to tell them of the differences he had with certain organizational decisions, if any, including comrades like Pinarayi Vijayan or Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. He was also someone who valued personal relationships and friendships beyond political differences. We were together in the Legislative Assembly from 2006-2011. It was only after Britto’s entry as an MLA and him questioning the limitations here, that the Assembly Hall at Thiruvananthapuram was made differently abled-friendly.
He got more involved in an intellectual life post the 1983 assault. Interestingly, it was also after the assault that Britto travelled most of North India, including the Himalayas. Britto never missed an opportunity to travel, even within Kerala. During the last Assembly election, Britto was with me during my campaign for almost five days. However, most of his newer plans now remain undone – a tour of North India with musician Pauly Varghese, a trip through Bengal, a Himalayan trek inspired by Chinese Buddhist sage Xuanzang’s travelogue etc. Britto has also left his magnum opus unfinished, unpublished. Agragami, Maharoudram etc. are some of his best work.
When Britto was about to get married, most of us must have wondered about the feasibility of someone with physical limitations as his, entering family life. I completely left it to him, when he approached me. We should also remember that Seena’s determination has been more precious in this relationship. That what this determination gave birth to was an ideal, political family. Britto was lucky enough to have loving, considerate parents and relatives.
The story of this “living martyr” might turn out to be just a story or even a myth to coming generations. For Simon Britto’s comrades however, he will remain a constant source of inspiration, energy and exuberance for many more years to come.
M A Baby is a Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
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