Murder of two Youth Congress workers coincided with completion of 1,000 days of Left Front government.
New Delhi: It is an irony that the murder of two Youth Congress workers in north Kerala coincided with the completion of 1,000 days of the Left Front government in the state. The Pinarayi Vijayan government was all set to begin a weeklong celebration highlighting its achievements, when news of the gruesome political murders rocked the state. Ironically once again, the killings also coincided with the launch of Left Front’s pre-election Kerala Samrakshana (Protection) Yatra, promising to guard the people of the state from divisive forces (read Sangh Parivar), maintain peace and harmony. The two, in their twenties, were hacked to death by a gang while on their way back home in Kerala’s northern Kasaragod district, last Sunday night. The CPM yatra was halted for a day. Ironically yet again, the two murders have taken the number of political killings in the state to 20 after the Left Front government came to power in 2016. Of the 20 murders, CPM men stand accused in 16 cases. By Tuesday, the police have arrested a local committee member of the CPM for masterminding and executing the murders of the youths. The FIR filed by the police clearly stated that the two victims had faced threat from the local CPM leadership, with one of the leaders openly threatening to kill them. By Thursday, the police had arrested seven persons in connection with the murders, all of them reportedly belong to the CPM. The case has been handed over to the Crime Branch, even as the parents of the victims demanded a CBI probe and reiterated their allegation that the killings were executed with the knowledge of, and at behest of, the local CPM leadership. The opposition Congress and the BJP too contend that the CPM cadre was involved in the murders. The CPM said it would not lend any support to the accused and claimed it had dismissed the accused from the primary membership of the party.
Generally when such murders happen involving their cadre, the CPM leadership would first defiantly deny any involvement in the incident and later say that it would conduct its own inquiry about the involvement of the cadre, since the party does not believe in the police version. However, in this latest case, immediately after the police filed the FIR, party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was at pains explaining how the CPM was against any form of political violence. “We don’t agree with murder politics. The party will not protect those involved in the killings. CPM has taken an unprecedented stand against political violence,” Kodiyeri told a bemused media. Only a couple of years back when he took over as state CPM secretary from the current Chief Minister, Kodiyeri had given a clarion call to the cadre, saying “party workers in every region should ensure that those who come to attack us do not return in the same manner they came”. He had then infamously said in chaste Malayalam “Padathu panikku varmbathu kooli”—that is, wages for work in the field should be paid on the sidelines itself, a euphemism for plain murder. What he actually meant was the cadre should settle scores then and there. He had famously got away with it then under the benevolence of then Home Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan. Even as journalists wondered whether it was the very same Kodiyeri Balakrishnan speaking, the secretary himself let the cat out: “Would any real CPM cadre plunge into such a barbaric act when the country is on the threshold of an election?” So that was the reason for CPM’s sudden change of heart—it wanted to paper its “killer” image!
If Kodiyeri’s was plain speaking, what emanated from the Chief Minister was nothing but cruel joke. It took full five days for Pinarayi Vijayan to realise that the murders were a “heinous crime”. Till that time he had described it as “unfortunate”. In Kasaragod on Friday, Vijayan went on the defensive. “There was no need to protect those who commit such heinous crimes. That is why CPM secretary openly denied the party’s role in the incident,” Vijayan said. Though the Chief Minister attended functions close to the victims’ houses, he did not visit the families. There had been instances of Vijayan visiting families of victims, but always of those who belonged to the party. In that way he still behaves as party secretary and not the Chief Minister of the state. Earlier, Vijayan too had contended that “those who know ABCD of Marxist politics” would not do such a crime when the party had undertaken a Kerala yatara. But those who know CPM politics know too well that such murders don’t happen in the party without the knowledge of the leadership. The party is singing a different tune only because a general election is round the corner. Thanks to the Sabarimala controversy, the party stands alienated from the majority community. Its efforts to open a dialogue with the Nair Service Society have been rebuffed. The CBI has filed a murder case against party’s Kannur district secretary, P. Jayarajan, involving the killing of a Muslim youth in 2012. Jayarajan currently is out on bail in another murder case and there has been speculation that the party may field him in the elections. Politically, the heat is on the CPM. The party cannot afford to be associated with another murder case. That is why the party is “keeping a distance” from those who practise the politics of murder. It will not be that easy for the party to bury its past too soon.