Figures tell a scary story of Kerala’s growing culture of political violence. Since the state’s formation in 1956, 527 Communist cadre have been killed while other parties have lost 442. The BJP’s toll stands at 185.
Union finance and defence Minister Arun Jaitley’s much-publicised Kerala sortie on August 6 to expose “the CPM hand in political killings” and Kerala government’s counter propaganda through an ad blitz in national dailies last week starkly point to the creed of violence practised by the BJP-RSS and CPM in the State since the late 1960s.
A deep sense of distrust prevails. On August 5, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) took over the security of RSS leader V. Sasidharan in the northern town of Panur, the hotbed of political violence. Sasidharan’s appeal against his conviction for the murder bid on Kannur district secretary P. Jayarajan in 1999 is pending. He suspects the State police mobile picket near his house is a trap. Ironically, he was among BJP leaders at the peace table opposite CPM leaders, notably Jayarajan, in Kannur recently.
Data bear out the wary trudge towards peace in Kannur, and now the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram, where RSS local leader Edavakode Rajesh fell to machete and dagger blows. After the State’s formation in 1956, 527 Communist cadre have been killed while other parties lost 442, and BJP 185.
In 12 years between 2006 and 2017, figures with State and National Crime Records Bureaus show that Kerala witnessed 107 political murders; 50 of the victims belonged to CPM, 42 BJP and allies, Congress 3, Muslim League 6 and others 6. But it does not follow that Kerala is the country’s homicide capital. NCRB figures for 2015 show Kerala accounted for mere 334 murders, roughly one percent, of the total 31,480 murders in the country. The number of political murders the same year: Uttar Pradesh, 28; Jharkhand 15; Kerala 12; and Madhya Pradesh 10.
Peace efforts have paid off, at least for now. The cessation of violence is often a pause in the decades-old history of turf war by the CPM to retain its territory and the BJP for more leg space and later a safe perch at the high table of Kerala politics.
BJP leaders gather to receive the body of an RSS worker who was allegedly killed by CPM workers in Kannur.
Gruesome as it is, the CPM has been involved in many political killings in the state, either as the killer or the victim; it was the constant, the variables being the RSS, the Congress, the Muslim League and even the CPI. Over the years the killings bear an eerie staccato- starting with the murder of RSS leader Vadikkal Ramakrishnan in 1968. Thalassery, the epicentre of revenge killings, has not slept a wink since then.
On January 25, 1994, RSS leader C. Sadananadan Master’s legs were chopped off. Retribution came the next morning when SFI State vice-president Sudheesh was done to death in front of his parents. The next major bout started with the RSS bid on CPM leader P. Jayarajan on August 25, 1999, followed by the murder of BJYM leader and school teacher K.T. Jayakrishnan Master on December 31 the same year.
Strangely, violence begets sympathy. The BJP, for decades confined to the margins of the State’s bipartisan politics, increased its overall vote tally from 6 to 15 percent in last Assembly elections. Its electoral growth has been commensurate with its direct action to checkmate the CPM.
Read: Meek shall not inherit Kannur
Says Prof M.N. Karassery, a social commentator: “At work is the sympathy factor. The more the CPM is known to physically take on the BJP, the latter gains in public sympathy. This was the case with the Communists, who were banned and hunted by the Congress and the police post-Independence. Congress leader Moyarath Sankaran, a historian of standing, was tortured to death in Kannur central jail after he switched to the Communist party. The halo of martyrdom benefited the Communists, who had since not looked back”.
In the early 1960s the RSS, backed by Konkan traders and business honchos, forayed into the Left bastion of Kannur, challenging the Koyas, well entrenched in beedi business. The land has been blessed with the greats of A.K. Gopalan and KPR Gopalan. The beedi turf split, with CPM promoting “Dinesh” and the RSS, “Ganesh” brand.
CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan addresses a gathering of those killed by RSS workers protesting in front of Raj Bhavan in the capital city of Kerala on August 6. (Photo: Asian Age)
There has been a set pattern to the internecine engagements. Most victims on both sides are poor and belong to the subaltern Thiyya community, which forms the cadre base of both the parties. Killer squads of either party compete in savagery. If it’s a severed head on the gate, it could be a corpse stuffed with sand to rot on the wayside.
Both parties subscribe to the use of force, and so the cadre can’t be otherwise even at the slightest provocation. It seems contagious, this urge for violence, and had infected campuses in the state. Political murderers are given folkloric status. Leaders visit them in jails and make sure that their stay is comfortable. Outside, on public platforms, these leaders employ their demagogic skills to incite violence, even making it sound heroic.
Party chieftains believe in tit for tat and administration-sponsored peace conferences are mere interludes to the next gory chapter. Would parties, not merely the leaders, resolve to give up arms? As proof, they should restrain the cadre and those breaching the party diktat should be disowned. That would bolster the meek cops into action. But if assurances are flouted still, the party leaders, the phantom bosses who patronize killer gangs, should be held to account for the bloody deeds. There is the option to tap Section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code and book party leaders, based on the logic that cadre-based parties have a chain of command and the order for action comes from above. Possibly, an extension of vicarious responsibility.
CPM central committee member E.P. Jayarajan, who has a bullet lodged below the ear, following a murder bid on him on a train, says only tough administrative measures and awareness campaigns on secularism can checkmate the Sangh Parivar, “which is communal and polarizes society”.
Asked about the party on its own checking the RSS, Mr Jayarajan said, “it’s the people who fight such elements”.
There are attempts to couch the blood thirst in tradition and folklore, that the violence is a legacy of the martial arts tradition of northern Malabar, marked by the eye for eye logic. Folklore abounds in deceit and skulduggery. Warrior chief Kathiroor Gurukal was killed by rival Thacholi Othenan in crass deceit, by spraying sand on the opponent to blind him.
“Do not valorise such bloody duels. Tracing the genesis of revenge killings to the martial arts tradition is simplistic because such savagery had manifested in different times and climes. Why CPM-RSS clash alone should be yoked into that category”, commented Prof Rajan Gurukkal in one of his treatises.
Death begets death
Over the years the killings bear an eerie staccato- starting with the murder of RSS leader Vadikkal Ramakrishnan in 1968. Thalassery, the epicentre of revenge killings, has not slept a wink since then.
On January 25, 1994, RSS leader C. Sadananadan Master's legs were chopped off. Retribution came the next morning when SFI State vice-president Sudheesh was done to death in front of his parents. The next major bout started with the RSS bid on CPM leader P. Jayarajan on August 25, 1999, followed by the murder of BJYM leader and school teacher K.T. Jayakrishnan Master on December 31 the same year.
Kannur, the den of death
Kannur district in northern Kerala has perhaps the worst history in political killings, which started in early seventies and continued in the new century, too. As per the data available with the District Crime Records Bureau, the district witnessed as many as
106 Political murders from March 1991 to December 2016.
42 Number of BJP/RSS, CPM workers killed
15 Number of Congress workers killed.
Red Volunteers of the CPM take a salute during a meeting of the party in Kannur. (Photo: Asian Age)
Last July, after both sides lost a man in Kannur, CPM state secretary and former home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan gave an ominous twist to a slogan that Communists once used effectively to end the feudal exploitation of poor paddy workers. When he uttered the slogan 'work in the fields, wages at the boundary', the cadre were electrified. They got what their leader meant: Sudden and bloody retaliation for any attack against partymen.
BJP leaders are no less martial. This week, as peace talks were on, BJP leader Sobha Surendran asked Kodiyeri Balakrishnan during a public meeting: "Isn't it time for you to kick the bucket."
A remedy
A strong State police chief can turn the table against perpetrators of violence", says former State police chief K.J. Joseph, who was DIG northern range, and calmed Thalassery in 1981-82 after bloody clashes claimed 30 activists. His tactic was to book those in the higher pecking order under charges of conspiracy (Section 120 B) IPC. "Suddenly they developed cold feet, some even fled the place, fearing sure arrest for complicity in crimes". "Dismantle party villages, that are party fiefdoms, belonging to both CPM and BJP-RSS. Many foot soldiers of revolution are rehabilitated here," said Mr Joseph.
