The certainty of a CBI probe into the brutal murder of RSS leader Manoj at Kathiroor, Kannur on September 1 and the framing of charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the case have put the Kerala CPI(M) in a quandary just when it is preparing for the meetings linked to the 21st party Congress and the local bodies elections to be held within a year.
Though the CPI(M) is still maintaining that it has nothing to do with the murder of Manoj, a huge section in the party itself and the general public are reluctant to take that claim seriously as the three persons already arrested in the case and those who are under the scanner are party activists apart from the fact that several local CPI(M) leaders have already been questioned.
The focus of the probe by the special investigation team of the Kerala Police's Crime Branch so far has been on the CPI(M) and if the CBI, which has already announced its readiness to take over the investigation, also follows the same path, it would cause a huge credibility crisis for the party on the eve of the beginning of the party conferences.
Observers are of the opinion that this credibility crisis will reflect in the party conferences to be held at the branch, local, area, district and State levels in the next four months. It may even lead to creation of problems for the State CPI(M) leadership in the 21st party congress to be held at Vishakhapatnam in April next year, they say.
That the intense attacks the CPI(M) leadership had launched against the State Home Department over the inclusion of charges under the UAPA by the police against the accused in the Manoj murder case have failed to receive the desired support from within the party and the general public is a cause of added worries to it.
A CPI(M) killer gang had brutally hacked Manoj (42), Kannur district Sharirik Shikshan Pramukh of the RSS, to death at Kathiroor, Kannur on September 1 after creating a terror scene by hurling country bombs at the vehicle in which he as travelling. His friend Pramod (50), who was travelling with him, had to be hospitalized with serious injuries suffered in the attack.
Occurring at a time when the heat and dust raised by the murder of Marxist rebel TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam, Kozhikode on May 4, 2012 were yet to subside, the killing of Manoj brought into focus the Kannur CPI(M)'s alleged affinity to politics of violence which has caused loss of hundreds of lives of men belonging to its rivals - mainly BJP-RSS - and itself.
"Though the CPI(M) is highly experienced in the legal battles over political murders in Kannur, what it is now actually worried about is the dissonance coming up within the party. There is a huge section in the party which does not want to bear the blame for the sinful deeds of a section of blood-thirsty leaders from Kannur," said a CPI(M) insider from Kathiroor itself.
Sources in the party said that the leadership had been in the process of making preparations to fight the findings of the Crime Branch team legally but they admitted that the entry of the CBI would be decisive for the party coupled with the reversals the charges under the UAPA could bring about. "It is for the first time the party is facing such a situation," a leader said.
