CPM and BJP must end Kerala's bloody 'murder politics'

The volatile Kannur district in north Kerala, known for its polarised politics, has been the biggest witness to political clashes in recent times, with the death toll shooting up to seven since the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to power in May this year.

The current spate of murders started on the counting day of the assembly election. C Raveendran, a CPM supporter, was killed immediately after the counting of votes on May 19, when crude bombs were hurled at a victory procession of the LDF in Dharmadam, the chief minister’s constituency, allegedly by BJP and RSS workers.

On July 11, CV Dhanaraj, a popular local leader of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and the CPI(M), was killed by a group of BJP/RSS activists inside his house at Karanthat in the Ramanthali panchayat. Within hours, in retaliation, CK Ramachandran, an auto-rickshaw driver and worker of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, the RSS-backed workers’ union, was murdered.

On September 20, Vinesh, a 26-year-old BJP worker, was murdered at Thillankeri, reportedly in a retaliatory attack hardly an hour after Jijesh, a DYFI activist, was injured in a bomb attack. Jijesh is an accused in the case of hacking and injuring local RSS leader Sajesh of Muzhakkunnu.

On October 10, K Mohanan, a member of CPI(M)’s Paduvilayi local committee and party branch secretary in the area, was hacked to death inside a local toddy shop. Within 24 hours, Remith, a 19-year-old BJP worker, was butchered in broad daylight to make the tally even.

BJP workers killed in Kannur district

Oct 11, 2016: Within 48 hours of the murder of a CPM worker at Valankichal near Anjarakkandy in the district, a BJP worker, identified as Remith, was hacked to death. Both murders took place in the Assembly constituency of Dharmadom.

Sept 20, 2016: Vinesh, a 26-year-old BJP worker, was murdered at Thillankeri reportedly in a retaliatory attack hardly an hour after Jijesh, a DYFI activist, was injured in a bomb attack.

Sept 3, 2016: In a suspected retaliatory attack, a 26-year-old BJP worker was hacked to death at Thillankeri in Kannur district, hardly two hours after a CPM man was injured in a bomb attack in the same area.

Aug 25, 2016: Four RSS workers were attacked allegedly by CPM workers at Muzukkunnu in the district.

July 11, 2016: BJP worker CK Ramachandran, 46, was murdered at his home near Payyannur.

Feb 15, 2016: A 27-year-old RSS worker was hacked to death in front of his aged parents in Kannur district.

Left workers murdered

Oct 10, 2016: K Mohanan, a member of CPI(M)’s Paduvilayi local committee and party branch secretary in the area, was hacked to death.

July 11, 2016: CV Dhanaraj, a leader of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and the CPI(M), was killed by a group of BJP/RSS activists.

History of the killings

The political killings in God’s Own Country and especially in Kannur district have assumed alarming proportions in recent times.

According to the District Crime Records Bureau (DCRB) in Kannur, 70 political murders were reported in the district between 1999 and 2015. According to a report in The New Indian Express, more than 200 people have been killed in the district in political attacks since 1980.

Apparently, at the root of the violence is the bad blood between the CPM and BJP-RSS cadres.

The CPM-BJP hostility is not new to Kerala and is growing. Kerala’s Crime Records Bureau estimates that at least 100 people have been murdered and many more injured in political violence in the last 10 years. Most cases of political crimes have occurred in Kannur and Thalassery in north Kerala’s Malabar region. 

The beginnings of political killings in the state date back to the 1970s, when Hindu-Muslim conflict was common in Malabar. This gradually turned to RSS-Left conflict on behalf of both communities and time to time, both parties kept taking lives on both sides to keep the tally equal.

Why is the state with its high literacy level turning into a conundrum?

The answer to the above questions lies in the fact that Kerala is now passing through a phase of political transition. The RSS-BJP is gaining muscle, the Congress-led UDF front is facing an existential crisis and the Left is trying to hard not to lose its hard-won dominant position in the state using all possible means, including violence.

This conflict between RSS/BJP local units and CPM workers to acquire and retain territory has resulted in murder. RSS and BJP local workers have become more aggressive in the southern state ever since BJP returned to power at the national level in 2014, and this was countered by CPM workers.

The BJP stepped into the election arena more actively in May, when the state went to the polls. In February last, when an RSS activist was brutally hacked in front of his family by a CPM mob of 200 in Kannur district, the cadres of RSS and BJP resolved to avenge the killing.

Such retaliatory attacks are not uncommon in the region. They follow a pattern in which the murder of a worker from a political party is avenged with the killing of another - regardless of their proximity to the organisation - from the rival party.

The social factor

Since the early days of the Communist movement in Kerala, Kannur district has been known as a “red bastion". CM Pinarayi Vijayan from the CPI(M) won the Assembly election from the Dharmadom constituency with a huge margin of 36,902 votes - about 56.8 per cent of total votes. 

The region, which is predominantly occupied by Thiyyas, an Other Backward Community (OBC), has a history of community-reform movements and the Left movement. The martyrs find a very important place in the narrative of revolutionary politics here. 

Those who lose their lives in political conflicts are revered to lure young supporters in and to establish the significance of various political parties. This legacy of martyrs was one of the main planks upon which both BJP and CPI(M) rested their case during the Assembly election in May 2016.

The CPI(M)’s discourse on martyrdom ranged from its legacy of anti-colonial and anti-feudal struggles in Kerala, to the deaths of its workers in recent inter-party feuds. Meanwhile, victims of political attacks - who had either lost someone or been severely injured themselves - addressed voters on behalf of the BJP.

The political factor

The rise of RSS-BJP clout in Kerala post May 2014, when the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre, is bolstering local BJP-RSS units to take on rivals. This was subsequently boosted by the BJP's improved performance in vote share in 2015 local body polls and the 2016 May state Assembly polls. Even amid the strong Left wave that swept through the state, the lone lotus bloomed in Nemam, marking the first victory for the party in the Kerala Assembly.

In the Assembly elections this year, the BJP's vote share rose to 10.53 per cent as compared to 6 per cent in the 2011 Assembly elections.

The fact that the BJP government is in power at the Centre and the party's new-found strength in the state emboldened the state unit. Particularly, it caused more aggression among “party villages” in the northern side of Kerala, such as Kannur and Kasaragod.

On the other hand, the Left parties too became increasingly wary about the rising threat posed by the RSS-BJP in the state and hence they too started reacting aggressively to any provocation from the RSS camp, often resorting to violent retaliations, with the silent support of the Vijayan government.

Political backing

There is a feeling among local BJP workers that there is support from above. On the other hand, the CPM workers in the state too feel they have the silent support of the LDF government to retaliate.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the CPM's state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan urged the party workers to retaliate at political rivals physically.

“Every region should have a system to counter the attack from rivals. We should ensure that those who come to attack us do not return from our region. For this, the party should gain strength in every region. Young men and women should be given necessary physical training,” The Indian Express reported.

On July 13, 2016, CM Pinarayi Vijayan stated before the Assembly that “political rivalry” led to the murders of a CPM and a BJP worker in Kannur district on July 11.

BJP leaders have also blamed the CPI(M) for initiating “murder politics” and perpetuating violence. V Muraleedharan, a member of the BJP national executive committee and a former state secretary, who is from Kannur, said: “Being the most powerful party in the district, the CPI(M) is trying to eliminate political opposition through violence. When the government does not take steps to curb violence, naturally the RSS-BJP activists feel threatened and they retaliate in an act of self-defence.”

What is Pinarayi Vijayan's government doing about the murders, and what's the solution?

The bigger question is the silence of CM Vijayan, who also holds the home ministry.

Pinarayi is the name of a village in Kannur district (old Malabar region). The village is the birth place of the CM and falls in his Dharmadom constituency. But the place is now in the news for brutal political killings.

It was here that Remith, an RSS-BJP worker, was hacked to death on October 11.

Community and party leaders of the CPM and BJP must sit together to build mutual confidence and to put an end to the cult of violence. It is futile to pin blame on each other. There must be an honest effort to sort out differences because violence is no solution to anything.

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