Kerala: CPM-PFI join hands against RSS

By Arun Lakshman from Thiruvananthapuram

The recent brutal murder of ABVP/RSS worker Shyam Prasad in Kannavam town of Kannur district by the dreaded Islamist organisation Popular Front of India seems to have a twist. The police have arrested four accused in the case without taking into consideration any matter of conspiracy. Four people, all PFI-SDPI activists are Mohammed (20), Saleem (25), Shameer (26) and Shasim (39). Interestingly, all four are from Kannavam and its surrounding areas, the stronghold of the CPM, wherein the party has a vice-like grip. The moot point is how, without the knowledge of the CPM, which is ruling the state and which has the maximum number of its cadres in the country in Kannur district, can such a murder take place in Kannavam, which is the Assembly constituency of former Minister and CPM central committee member EP Jayarajan.

Also, the arrest of the four accused by the police immediately after the crime seems to have no takers in Kannur District which has seen several political killings and brutal assassinations including that of the BJYM state Vice president KT Jayakrishnan on December 1, 1999, in Mokeri East UP School when he was teaching students. However, the arrest of all the four accused points finger of suspicion towards the police and the CPM at large as its strongman Pinarayi Vijayan is the Chief Minister of Kerala who also belongs to Kannur district. Sources told Organiser that the CPM which is on the back foot following the nation-wide campaign by the RSS and the BJP on its brutal killings in Kerala, especially in Kannur District has taken a break from the killings. Instead, as reported earlier the party has now taken to inflicting grievous injuries to the victims without killing them. Most of the victims who faced the attack are either maimed for life or are bedridden without any use to self. Such is the political tactic the party has adopted in its stronghold Kannur to escape from the embarrassment of being murderers across the national spectrum.

The CPM has always been hand in glove with the PFI and the SDPI for a long time as the party wants to have a cake of the SDPI vote share for itself as the dominant Muslim outfit of Kerala, Indian Union Muslim League has been cushioned in the lap of the Congress, being a major partner in the Congress-led United Democratic Front. With no Muslim outfits in its kitty, the CPM has been trying to woo the SDPI and there have been several instances in which the party has entered into a covert relationship with the PFI which, according to intelligence reports may get nationwide ban.

Another interesting point is that the maximum number of persons migrating to the Islamic State is from Kannur and the NIA has already arrested several persons from Kannur District who had left the shores of India to fight for Islamic State. Almost all these people who had migrated to Syria and Afghanistan as fighters had a background of PFI and again the district is the stronghold of the CPM in the country. The party claims that anything and everything in party villages is controlled by it and if so, why does the party not get a tip-off on these IS migrations? Or was the party mute spectator to the rise of Islamic terror or was the party totally dependent upon the PFI and SDPI for a Muslim entry and so it remained silent to it. The CPM has to answer these questions which the party will find tough as this is not the question of attacking the RSS and getting away by making some fake secular comments. In such a district if the party is ignorant of the IS migration and the growth of the PFI and SDPI, it shows that the CPM’s strength is declining, which the party will never admit for sure. This also means that the CPM has entered into an unholy alliance with the PFI and SDPI to fight its battle against the RSS and BJP by camouflaging its role and intention. There have to be suspicions in this count and a detailed probe on this angle should be looked into as to how the SDPI and PFI workers were able to do such a daring killing in broad daylight on an RSS worker without the CPM knowing this, at least the local leadership of the party.

Then why the CPM is entering into a conspiracy with the SDPI seems to be the major question as the party which is in power in the state and with the BJP in power in Centre, the CPM does not want to further damage its image and seems to have entered into a relationship with the PFI/SDPI for eliminating the RSS and BJP leaders and cadres in Kerala. Without the tactic understanding of the CPM, the SDPI will not have the guts to kill an RSS worker in broad daylight. The method adopted by the killers resembled the killing of TP Chandrashekan, the estranged CPM leader who was brutally killed after felling him on the road by hitting him with a moving car on his bike. The same strategy was adopted here as the assailants, according to police, had hit Shyam who was riding a motorbike and after felling him hacked him to death. This totally resembled the killings adopted by the CPM activists.

In the murky politics of Kannur district, the party wants to ward of the political threat of the RSS by using force as it has always been doing wherever it has the brute strength, which was also seen in West Bengal in its heydays. The party also wants to somehow hold on to its Muslim support base and finds that the best way is to attack and kill the RSS and BJP leadership.

With the police being totally one-sided and acting as voice of the ruling party and DYSP level officers of Thalassery, Kuthuparamba and Kannur strongly supportive of the CPM, there is little one can expect by  way of justice to the RSS and the BJP cadres in the district. However, the general public knows what is happening and the CPM can expect a backlash from the society for its covert and overt tactics of killings and physical attacks on its political opponents.

Another interesting fact to note is that with the party district elections for its new office bearers being conducted, the CPM leadership in the district is caught in fierce group rivalry with the party district secretary, P Jayarajan, considered as Chemical Ali in this part of the world, in a battle of survival in the party as he was censured following his public display of glorifying him using flex boards and video and audio cassettes projecting him as a folk hero. This censuring of the party leadership with special emphasis of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has not gone down well with Jayarajan, who has grip in the nitty and gritty bloody politics of Kannur district and there are many chances that he would have a hand in this brutal murder of the RSS worker using the SDPI to settle scores within the party as he was being sidelined by the party state leadership.

Courtesy: Organiser