Kallumadathil Sukumaran Radhakrishnan first ventured into the choppy waters off Kochi with fellow fishermen when he was nine. That was how he managed to find money to support his family and education. He did that for 15 years till he finished his post-graduation in philosophy and found a lecturer’s job.

But even his long struggle with hunger, poverty and the waves of the Arabian Sea did not prepare Radhakrishnan, now the Vice-Chancellor of Kerala’s Sree Sankara Sanskrit University, for the fight with the CPM.

Haunted by the CPM-led government and the persistent persecution by its affiliated organizations, Radhakrishnan, 53, has decided to opt out, with two years to go for retirement.

As his four-year deputation to the university gets over in four months, the philosophy reader at Maharaja’s College, Kochi, has applied for voluntary retirement. “I am scared of going back to the college. My family and I still face threat from partymen (CPM workers). As a VC, I can get police protection any time. But as an ordinary professor, I will be vulnerable to assaults,” says Radhakrishnan.

Such has been the CPM-sponsored attack on him that Radhakrishnan says he has no choice. The CPM has used every weapon possible: character assassination, vigilance probe, physical assault and sustained campaigns.

Why did they go after Radhakrishnan? In a state where intellectuals are equated with the Left, Radhakrishnan has been an outsider. He has spoken out against the CPM and its policies. In his student days, he was an activist of the student wing of the Congress and is still friends with several of its leaders. Through his writings and speeches, Radhakrishnan has often attacked the party’s ideology.

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