The suicide by an elderly Gulf returnee after politicians, seeking bribes, prevented him from setting up an automobile workshop on a leased plot of land at Punalur in Kollam district has triggered a wave of anger among Pravasis and ex-Pravasis in Kozhikode, the hub for Gulf NRIs.
Half a dozen Pravasis in the Malabar region The Hindu spoke with expressed strong anger and frustration at the way Gulf workers were being exploited by the political class and the bureaucracy. “You media guys always criticise us for not setting up productive ventures and instead opting to keep our hard-earned money in bank deposits,” Abdul Hakeem, a Qatar-based NRI from Kozhikode, said angrily. “Now you understand, don't you?”
On Wednesday, the Kollam district police arrested M.S. Gireesh, the Kunnikkode mandalam president of the All India Youth Federation (AIYF), the youth with of the Communist Party of India, for allegedly abetting the suicide of Sugathan. The 65-year-old, who had toiled in the Gulf for about a quarter century before returning home, wanted to set up the workshop along with his two grown sons on a leased plot. AIYF activists, led by Mr. Gireesh, had put up their party’s flags on the plot of land where Mr. Sugathan had planned to build his workshop.
It was alleged that the federation leaders had sought bribes from Sugathan threatening not to allow him to build the workshop as the plot of land had earlier been a paddy field. Mr. Sugathan’s son Sujith had filed a police complaint that his father had ended his life because of the continuous harassment by the AIYF activists which made him fear that his dream project would not materialise.
Series of suicides
“Sugathan’s is only the latest in a series of suicides by Pravasis caused by the harassment by corrupt politicians and the so-called activists,” says Attakkoya Pallikandy, chairman of the Pravasi Coordination Committee. Thousands had been heartbroken and bankrupt. “Politicians and the bureaucracy in Kerala will not allow Pravasis to set up any ventures.” He said this had been going on for more than half a century the time when the then unemployed youths, tired of poverty, started leaving for the Gulf to work in the deserts.”
He alleged that resident Keralites tended to ‘exploit and loot’ non-resident Keralites at every step, right from the airport. “Everyone agrees that Kerala’s prosperity over the past decades has been because of the hard-earned money sent in by lakhs of Pravasis in the Gulf, but back home nobody gives a damn to the Pravasi.”
Referring to the sops announced by the Finance Minister in the recent State Budget, Mr. Pallikandy said nothing was going to work as long as the current political culture didn’t change. “If the practice of hartals, strikes, and illegal putting up of party flags on the land owned by others is not ended, no Pravasi is going to waste his money on setting up industries in Kerala,” Mr. Pallikandy, echoing the views of others, said.
