CPM’S Political Killings Continue In Kerala

The CPM which is the largest political party in the state seems to get the tag as the biggest political murderers also. The party has restarted its political killings with two incidents of murders of two RSS leaders in the space of a week.

The first to be assassinated was the local BMS worker, Suresh Babu (42) who was killed by attacking him with lethal weapons while he was on the road with some friends. The assailants, all CPM men pounced on him and broke his head by hitting hard with an iron rod.The reason, he had ventured to be in the BMS trade union from the red fort of Pinarayi, home to the CPM state secretary and party politbureau member, Pinarayi Vijayan, notorious for his support to violence conducted by the CPM in this part of the world. The next was the murder of the RSS district leader Elanthottil Manoj (43) who was hacked to death in another CPM stronghold, Kizhakke Kadirur, which is home to the CPM Kannur district secretary P. Jayarajan who was rightly termed as Dracula, by the Congress leader and former MP K.Sudhakaran after this gory violence of Manoj’s murder.

Manoj was the sore in the eye of Jayarajan and his ilk as he was the one person who was instrumental in slow but steady progress of the RSS ideology among the youths of the hitherto CPM stronghold of Kizhakke Kadirur, so he decided to eliminate him. Manoj had faced murder attempts from the CPM goons in 1997, 1999 and in 2009. He escaped miraculously in all these attacks after being grievously injured. His friend and colleague in the organisation V. Shaji had lost his eyesight following the bomb attack on both Manoj and Shaji in 1999. Shaji incidentally is the brother of the RSS Vibhag Karyavahak V. Sasidharan whose family had faced innumerable sufferings following their commitment to the ideology and the organisational work which had irked the CPM leadership.

Then the CPM made out a story that Manoj was an accused in the Jayarajan murder attempt in 1999. Manoj was indeed an accused in that case and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment by a lower court. However, it may be noted that during that time the CPM-led LDF was in power in the state and the standard practice during those days was to register an FIR against the local leadership of the party or organisation which was alleged to be involved in the attack. Here Jayarajan was alleged to be attacked in his home by a group of RSS men and Manoj being a local leader of the RSS, was charged as an accused and subsequently a lower court had sentenced him.However it may be noted that the CPM had grotesquely murdered K. T. Jayakrishnan Master, state vice president of the Bharatheeya Yuva Morcha who was teaching in Mokeri East UP school. The CPM leadership had publicly claimed that Jayakrishnan was killed as an aftermath of the attack on P. Jayarajan. The CPM must understand the fact that public memory may be short but not of those who are following these cases.If Manoj’s killing is made out as a retaliatory one to the attack on Jayarajan, then what was the reason behind the killing of Jayakrishnan. It may also be recalled that Jayarajan was the accused in the case related to the murder of RSS Kuthuparamba Karyavahak Mohanan in 1994.

The CPM which is the largest political party in Kannur district has conducted killings at random and on all its political opponents, be it Congress, Muslim League or the RSS, BJP leaders.The CPM Kannur district secretary P. Jayarajan is an accused in the case relating to the murder of a Muslim Youth League leader Shukoor recently in the Marxist stronghold of Payyanur in Kannur district.The reason for the killing is that a group of youths including Shukoor had blocked the car in which Jayarajan was travelling during a protest march organised by Muslim League. CPM goons captured Shukoor and took his photograph and it is alleged that the photo was then sent by MMS to Jayarajan’s phone and on his orders Shukoor was assassinated in cold blood.

To make matters worse, the CPM general secretary Prakash Karat while addressing a party gathering in Sreekandapuram in Kannur district had called upon the CPM cadres to implement the Kannur model throughout the state against the RSS as it was the most effective manner to counter the RSS.What is the CPM’s Kannur model, killing and maiming of its political opponents? This shows that the party’s top leadership is involved in the killing of Manoj as it was only twelve days after Prakash Karat made such a stunning statement that the CPM men had butchered Manoj.

The party, however is now, on a sticky wicket following the UDF government led by Oomen Chandy recommending a CBI inquiry into the killing of Manoj and with the BJP in power at the centre, the CPM feels that the heat will finally be on them. However, the CPM which has been dodging the political killings in Kannur with ease and finesse is trying its best to save its skin and that of the party leadership.The party state committee member and another leader from Kannur M.V.Jayarajan has already come out with the theory that the state police is victimising the party leaders in Manoj killing and as usual the party has come out with a one liner denial that it has nothing to do with the grotesque killing of Manoj.

The truth, however, is different and if there is a proper investigation into the conspiracy then several skeletons will tumble out of the cupboard and several of the original conspirators will be put to task as the people at large are already fed up with the politics of murder and elimination practiced by the CPM. The party is witnessing huge erosion in its base as day by day several party workers and cadres of the state have been shifting alligenace to different political parties including the BJP and the Congress.

It may also be recalled that in the case related to the murder of former Communist leader T. P. Chandra-shekharan the state police team caught several of the party’s killer squad members including area committee member Kunhanadan and Kunnumakkara local committee secretary Ramachandran.The police special investigating team also caught the CPM Kozhikode district secretariat member P. Mohanan whose wife K. K. Lathika is the party MLA.The investigating team has to end the investigation here amidst criticism from several corners that the main conspirators of the gruesome criminal act is still at large and that this would lead to the top CPM leadership. This may happen in Manoj case also if there is no proper vigil carried out as on certain issues the CPM and the Congress leadership seems to share a common bonhomie which has resulted in a win-win situation for both the parties. This is one reason as to why the state BJP and RSS leadership had petitioned the Chief Minister for an inquiry by a national-level investigating agency. This investigation if properly implemented will give a clear picture of the political killings hitherto carried out in Kannur district by the CPM and how it has eliminated its victims which would shed light on several unsolved cases in the history of the bloody political war in the streets of Panoor, Thalassery, Kuthuparamba and other CPM strongholds where the RSS and the BJP have emerged as a challenge to the red fort.

 By Arun Lakshman from Kannur