The Left Democratic Front government in Kerala headed by Marxist strongman Pinarayi Vijayan is in the dock over police highhandedness in dealing with certain cases recently. Vijayan, who is also the home minister, has come under criticism not only from the Opposition but also prominent Front partner, CPI, for deviating from the avowed policies of the Left. This is also a throwback to the past in that whenever communists came to power there were allegations that the party apparatus tries to meddle with the police making them subservient. But this time things seem to be slightly different in the sense that Pinarayi Vijayan has come under party scrutiny for his “autocratic style” of functioning. While the BJP is demanding a white paper on the law and order situation in the state, the United Democratic Front led by the Congress alleges that the government has lost its control over the police. The human rights activists, however, charge the state with using police to suppress people’s rights. They allege that those who speak non-stop against “right-wing fascism” are perpetuating “left-wing fascism” in the state. The immediate provocation for such allegations is the arrest of a Malayalam writer, Kamal C. Chavara and an activist, C. Nadir on charges of sedition. They were taken into police custody under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Chavara was arrested while on his way to buy medicines for his wife who was admitted for delivery in a hospital and charged with sedition for “insulting” the national anthem on social media. He was kept in a lock-up and was allegedly roughed up by police officials. “I was arrested like a criminal,” Chavara said later. “A police officer even asked me why I married an adivasi girl and took her caste name repeatedly while questioning me.” The activist, Nadir, was arrested the next day citing an old case.
Along with rights activists, veteran CPM leader V.S. Achuthanandan and state party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan too came out against the police. “The UAPA should not be slapped on people who are raising political and social issues. Some police officers are working against the policies of the government to portray it in a bad light,” Balakrishnan had said. Achuthanandan was more forthright while saying such actions will strengthen people’s belief that “the state is moving to fascism”. Incidentally, the arrest of the writer and the activist came close on the heels of police rounding up 11 people, in two different incidents, for failing to stand up during the national anthem at the recently concluded 21st International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in Thiruvananthapuram. The latest in line is the arrest and detention of some students of the prestigious Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam on charges of vandalising college premises. Earlier, a month ago, there was much public furore over the killing of two Maoists, including a woman, in a police encounter in the Nilambur forest in Malappuram district in north Kerala. The general feeling in the state is that the two were killed in cold blood by the police of Pinarayi Vijayan, who has been crying foul over the killings of eight SIMI under-trials immediately after jailbreak in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. At that time, Vijayan had said that “BJP governments are notorious for fake encounters.” But when such a thing happened in its own backyard, the Left Front was caught off guard. Though the government initially tried to justify the police action, it was forced to order a judicial enquiry into the killings. Front partner CPI was the first to raise the red flag. Its state secretary Kanom Rajendran asked the LDF to examine whether anybody has “the right to gun down those who express their opinion”.
As soon as he took over, Pinarayi Vijayan replaced a popular and honest officer, T.P. Senkumar and brought in the present DGP, Lokanath Behera, a former CBI officer. Clearly, Senkumar was not in the good books of the Chief Minister and Behera was considered close to him. Right from the beginning, the first communist government of E.M.S. Namboodiripad in 1957, the party had defined the role of police in their style of functioning. Accusing the police was in “collusion with the bourgeois”, the then EMS government declared that the struggles of peasants, students, youth, women and others would be dealt with by the civil administration and not by the police. Detention without trial was prohibited against individuals and organisations. But the government could remain in power only for 28 months. Noted writer and academic Prof B. Vivekanandan had aptly assessed those months in such words. “The bane of the first EMS government was its failure to draw a line between the party and the government. The interference of the local party units (the party cells) in the local administration—especially in the police administration—became quite widespread and caused considerable resentment among the people at large.” Interestingly, this time the first complaint against the police had come from party red fort Kannur when district secretary P. Jayarajan himself laid a siege on the local police station, demanding release of some arrested comrades. The party central leadership too has expressed unhappiness over the functioning of the police. It is believed that since home portfolio is held by the Chief Minister himself, party cadre and the leadership are restraining themselves from outright criticism. But social media is flooded with open charges against handling of the police by Pinarayi Vijayan. It is pertinent to go back once again to Vivekanandan. “From hindsight, I feel that the communist government would have completed its full term had the communist party cadre in the state not indulged in introducing ‘cell rule’ at local levels and caused hostility among the people.”
But the fact remains that CPM, more than any other party, can be credited with politicising the state police force. However party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who had notoriously stated while holding the home portfolio in the last LDF government that the party would turn every police station into a bomb making unit, is now saying some forces are trying to discredit the government by using the police force. According to him, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh along with Left extremists like Maoists, rebel communists Revolutionary Marxist Party of slain communist party leader T.P. Chandrashekharan and Social Democratic Party of India have formed a grand alliance against the CPM. The general belief is that the party is gearing up for a major shake-up of the police force in order to counter the “unholy alliance” out to malign the LDF government. Didn’t Karl Marx say history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce?