INDIA BEATS
Courage under fire
K.P.M.BASHEER
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Paralysed after a campus clash, Simon Britto continues to be active in politics.
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PHOTO: K.K. MUSTAFAH
Never-say-die SPIRIT: Britto and his wife struggled against financial difficulties as well as opposition.
THE newest member of the Kerala Assembly is just back after his first appearance in the House. He is still excited about the session, which saw the passage of the controversial Kerala Professional Colleges Bill.
Simon Britto Rodrigues ("Britto" to everyone in Kerala), the nominated MLA, is happy with his performance in the Assembly. There was one problem, though. The Assembly Hall's seating arrangement was not Britto-friendly. He was the first MLA to take part in the proceedings while sitting in a wheelchair. The Assembly officials had to organise a ramp to let Britto's wheelchair in and to saw off a part of a seat to accommodate the wheelchair.
Britto is 80 per cent physically disabled. But he prefers to say: "I am 20 per cent able." His body is paralysed chest down. Badly wounded in a student union clash, he is a constant reminder of the violent campus politics of the 1980s. Also, of a never-say-die attitude.
The attack
As the monsoon rain briefly stopped on this cold, semi-dark afternoon, Britto recalled how his political opponents almost did him in on a sunny day in 1983. He had just finished law school and was then the State vice-president of Students Federation of India, the powerful student wing of the CPI(M). A couple of SFI colleagues had been wounded in a campus clash with the rival pro-Congress Kerala Students Union (KSU). Britto was visiting those admitted in Ernakulam General Hospital. As he arrived in the casualty ward, a group of students pounced on him, and one stabbed him four times. The dagger pierced his heart, liver, lungs and, more damagingly, the spine. "I could see the face of the guy who stabbed me," Britto says without rancour.
Fighting back
After a series of thoracic and spinal surgeries, doctors gave up on him. The deep spinal injuries had paralysed his body chest down. "I heard doctors say that I would die soon." But Britto managed to survive. "My attacker wanted me to die," he says smiling. "Lying in the hospital, I decided to defeat his intention."
For the next three and a half months, he was in hospital. "Those were days of excruciating pain," he says. He could not sleep for 47 days. It was the beginning of a series of long stays in different hospitals, as he periodically developed innumerable medical problems. Pain and ailments never left him. But Britto fought on. When he realised modern medicine had failed him, Britto tried ayurveda and naturopathy.
"I am now a firm believer in naturopathy; my condition is far better because of naturopathy."
Getting on with life
After the first 10 years of pain and sufferings, his body gradually responded to the treatment. Now he can, with the help of a walker, take a few steps inside his room. Of course, many of his vital systems are still in jeopardy. "Britto's head is the only system in his body that functions properly," says his wife, Seena Bhaskar.
After a flimsy police probe, his attacker was acquitted. But Britto did not want to look back. "Past is past; I only look forward." Britto, who has been a CPI (M) activist all his adult life, says God had nothing to do with his being alive. "I am a communist; I believe in dialectical materialism." He was born a Catholic and, as a teenager, wanted to be a priest. But, after taking to politics, he said goodbye to religion and God.
Despite being crippled for life by student politics, Britto is strong advocates political activism on the campus. He is absolutely against the middle-class clamour for a ban on campus politics. "Politics nurtures democratic values and promotes social skills," he argues. "My experience as a student-politician gave me the strength to endure my sufferings."
Into active politics
In the past one decade, Britto, sitting in his wheelchair, has spoken at innumerable CPI (M) meetings across the State. He actively campaigned in the May-June Assembly election. After the election, the CPI (M) nominated him as the Anglo-Indian MLA.
Ten years after his attack, Britto married Seena Bhaskar, an SFI activist much younger than him. She was attracted to "Britto's commitment to the (communist) movement, and his strength of character." The couple struggled together against financial difficulties and opposition from Seena's family and Britto's community.
After marriage, Britto turned a novelist. His third novel, which is almost finished, has Mumbai's labour movement as its backdrop. The first won a Malayalam best novel award and the second is into its fourth edition.
Britto has a large circle of friends. They attribute his survival to his intellectual vibrancy, positive attitude and political activism. He is a huge moral support for many of his friends. Recalls Bonny Thomas, cartoonist with The Economic Times: "Britto's advice gave me orientation at a time when I was going haywire. He told me: `Look Bonny, it's the burning candle that throws light around, not the burnt-out one; try to be a burning candle, not a burnt-out one'."
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