Rebel killing fall-out fails to shake Kerala CPM
Now that a crucial phase in the case pertaining to the brutal murder of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam in Kerala's Kozhikode district on May 4, 2012, is over, with the trial court convicting 12 accused and awarding life imprisonment to 11 persons, including three CPI(M) leaders for conspiracy, the question being asked is: Will this would serve as a deterrent against political murders sponsored by the Marxists and other parties in God's Own CountryIJ People in Kerala are sceptical. The perpetrators are not yet ready to admit their mistakes and show signs of remorse or self-reform. Though the people are convinced, and the court verdict has established, that the murder was an act of political vengeance on the part of the CPI(M), the left party is persisting in its claim that it had nothing to do with the crime. The same CPI(M) which had immediately after the murder announced that any party worker who is proved to have had any role in the killing would be thrown out, has now resolved to do everything it can to save the three leaders convicted for conspiracy. It is apparent that the party is also indirectly extending legal support to the seven hired killers, said to be CPI(M)-sympathisers, who had killed Chandrasekharan by striking 51 times on the face and head of the 51-year-old rebel leader. In short, the left party appears determined to protect the killers and those who had been controlling them.
The Congress-led UDF Government is not being effective in this context as it is still unable to disprove the allegation that there is an ‘understanding' between it and the Marxists to not take the probe to higher levels of the CPI(M) leadership. More signs of this ‘politics of adjustment’ are expected to come out when arguments on the appeals of both the prosecution, which wants the convicts to be hanged, and the accused, reach the higher courts of law in due course of time.
That the Marxists, who have been on one side of all the bloody confrontations that have taken place in Kannur and north-eastern Kozhikode, are not yet ready to bid adieu to the cult of violence even after the widespread protests against the Chandrasekharan murder, became obvious on December 1 last when they murdered BJP worker Vinod Kumar at Perumba, again in Kannur. Vinod was on his way to pay tributes to KT Jayakrishnan, the Yuva Morcha leader and teacher who was hacked to death by Marxists in front of his Class VI students on December 1, 1999. Vinod's killing proved that the Marxists have not changed between 1999 and now and that even the Chandrasekharan incident was no eye-opener to them. What the Marxist leaders are refusing to realise is that they are becoming an endangered species in the fast-evolving society of Kerala. The sharp decline in their popularity, as reflected in the past three main elections, has been sufficient proof of this.