The Communist Party of India (Marxist), Kerala’s ruling party, has for some time now been seeking refuge in wokeism to mask its ideological decline. Having been in power continuously, the party no longer relies on its traditional methods like strikes, killings, or militant agitation to sustain its influence and ideological momentum. Consequently, many CPI(M) leaders have reinvented themselves as wokeists. M Swaraj, along with CPI(M) national general secretary M A Baby and others, emerges as one of the most prominent wokeist figures within Kerala’s CPI(M).
When Swaraj’s Wokeism Targeted Operation Sindoor
On May 8, the day after India launched Operation Sindoor, the government clearly stated that it was a targeted anti-terror military operation. Even a school-going child could understand that this was not a declaration of war or would lead to a full-scale war between India and Pakistan, yet M Swaraj wisely used the time to spread his Wokeism. Swaraj’s Facebook post, titled “War and Peace”, is a textbook example of how wokeism has taken hold of CPI(M) leaders today.
Beginning with a quote from a prominent Malayalam author, Swaraj, continues with a dramatic assertion: “The news is that the Pakistani army has started shelling the border. This has plunged the world into fear of war.” From the very beginning, he raised the alarm about a world-changing crisis and the looming threat of global war. However, his perspective ignored the actual context; Operation Sindoor was a targeted response to terrorism, according to the government of India. Yet, wokeist Swaraj chose to amplify emotional impact over factual accuracy. However, if you ask him what solution they have to end terrorism, they offer nothing beyond fabricated emotional outcry.
He continues: “Some who are thirsty for war are shouting on the social media, and those who are motivated by war are jumping on the news channels.” This created a widespread and cynical indictment of the media and citizens who supported the airstrike. Instead of addressing the reasoning behind the operation, the wokeist Swaraj portrayed anyone who did not align with his pacifist vision as morally corrupt, driven by greed, bloodlust, and sinister motives.
“For some, war is a pleasure on the border as long as a missile does not land in their own yard…” Swaraj argues that people support military strikes because they are not directly affected by its impact. He conveniently overlooks the fact that the country’s counter-terrorism action is often supported mostly by those who have directly suffered from Pakistani terrorism. Who else but wokeists like Swaraj can advocate for peace while sitting safely in Kochi, far removed from the realities of cross-border Pak- terror? Such sweeping generalisations not only dismiss legitimate national security concerns but also reduce complex geopolitical challenges to matters of personal prestige, a recurring pattern in the rhetoric of wokeists.
He said in the post, “Let time correct those who have the mentality of enjoying war until their own child is killed.” This is deeply accusatory, weaponising grief to shame those who think differently. This is not peace advocacy but emotional coercion. “The truth is that there are no winners in war…” Swaraj conflates a targeted anti-terrorist strike with full-scale war. His argument erases distinctions, treating all violence as equal, which undermines clarity. “May the dawn of peace without terrorism dawn.” Noble words, but they falsely suggest both the state and terrorists are equally culpable. This ambiguity, though couched in peace, distorts justice.
Swaraj’s woke lens on Ayodhya Verdict & Palestine terror
“Did you, innocent people, still expect a different verdict in contemporary India?”, M. Swaraj’s response to the Ayodhya verdict in 2019 embodies the essence of wokeism, which thrives on fostering institutional distrust. Rather than engaging with the legal reasoning behind the Supreme Court’s decision, he dismissed the entire judicial process as inherently unjust. This reflects a worldview that treats institutions as oppressive unless they conform to a specific ideological lens. Through emotional appeals, wokeists like Swaraj elevate chosen victims uncritically and reduce complex democratic outcomes to simplistic battles between the “oppressed” and the “privileged.”
Swaraj, in 2023, wrote on Facebook that the ‘Palestinians are innocent, no matter what they have done. The moment an impartial analysis begins, placing Israel and Palestine on opposite sides, injustice has already been committed.
It is worth recalling that ‘Janayugam’, the mouthpiece of the CPI, an ally of the CPI(M), once launched a scathing attack on M Swaraj, calling him a “donkey” and remarking, “If the communist donkey doesn’t have any sense even in this fortieth century, it would be better to cultivate tomatoes on that head.”
Swaraj, once a communist, urged the death penalty for his own Ex-CM V S Achuthanandan
M Swaraj, now deeply immersed in wokeist ideas, turns a blind eye to the conflicts still being waged by Communist regimes like China across the world, as well as the violence and killings carried out by his own party in Kerala. Yet, in an earlier era, when he was firmly rooted in hardline communist ideology, he revealed the true nature of that commitment, notably when he declared that former Chief Minister and founder member of CPI(M) leader V S Achuthanandan was a class traitor and a renegade who deserved capital punishment. That speech was not a slip, it reflected the extreme ideological zeal of a communist fully loyal to party orthodoxy.
Having now abandoned those hardline positions, Swaraj has reinvented himself as one of Kerala’s most prominent wokeist figures. This shift is not merely a personal evolution; it represents a broader ideological drift within the CPI(M) itself. What we are witnessing is not just the transformation of Swaraj, but the party’s shift from Communism to Wokeism, a change in which the old certainties of class struggle and revolutionary rhetoric have been replaced with selective moralism and performative virtue.
