THIRUVANATHAPURAM, Aug 25: Lashing out against Arundhati Roy's novel God of Small Things, veteran Marxist E M S Namboodiripad has described it as ``anti-Communist propaganda.''

``It presents a totally unrealistic picture of the Communist movement in Kerala,'' he said while refusing a request by The Indian Express for an interview on his views about the book.

In his column in an English fortnightly, the veteran leader has said that Roy had defamed him in the book, which was part of her antipathy to the Communist movement in Kerala. Namboodiripad was taking off from Marxist critic Ajaz Ahmed who had reviewed the book earlier.

Roy's description of the three Communists in the novel, which included one living person (EMS), was nothing but a caricature of the Communist party, which has been in existence for the past 60 years or more, the veteran leader has said in his column.

The CPM leader has said that he entirely agreed with Ahmed, who characterised Roy's description of EMS being a landlord in Kottayam area whose ancestral house had been converted to a modern hotel as ``libel and defamation.''

Referring to a character in the novel `Comrade Pillai', EMS has pointed out: ``There is nobody in our party who resembles `Comrade Pillai' as projected by Arundhati Roy. Anyone resembling `Comrade Pillai' would find himself or herself out of the party. Ours is a party that grows stronger and stronger as we take determined action against those who violate the code of Communist conduct. The degeneration that has affected all bourgeois parties is something alien to us.''

The veteran Marxist said he was not surprised that Roy's work was greatly appreciated in world literature because the ``ideology'' of world literature, dominated in the bourgeoisie is by its very character ``anti-Communists''. Anybody who attacks Communists anywhere in the world would be welcome to the captains of industry of bourgeois literature in the world. And Roy's novel is no doubt a sharp weapon in the hands of anti-Communist leaders of the world (bourgeois literature), EMS has said.

The veteran leader pointed out that the Communist party had become a major political force in the State because of the sacrifices of thousands of martyrs who laid down their lives in the cause of freedom, democracy, social justice and secular politics. ``How could such a party emerge in Kerala if ts leader were like the three, who according to Arundhati Roy are typical Communists. The thing is so absurd that it does not require refutation,'' he has said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.