Did Kerala’s Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan have any role — as the BJP seems to believe — in the killing of Bharatiya Jana Sangh activist Vadikkal Ramakrishnan, perhaps the first incident of murderous violence involving the CPI(M) and Sangh Parivar in Kannur, infamous as the State’s political killing fields, almost half a century backIJ
There have so far been no hard evidences to establish anything like that but what is certain at this point of time is that the spectre of that murder has come back to haunt Vijayan, hailing from Kannur district, because of a determined campaign embarked upon by the BJP which wants the case to be reopened.
Sangh Parivar outfits have been demanding a probe over this against Pinarayi for quite some time and the BJP has now intensified that demand in the context of the reported disclosures by people who claim to be eyewitnesses for the murder that took place on April 28, 1969 at Thalassery, probably the most politically turbulent town in Kannur, Kerala’s Marxist country.
Ramakrishnan’s relatives also have been seeking reopening of the case that was settled by the court years ago due to lack of evidences. The BJP, which is said to have lodged complaints with the Director General of Police and Home Secretary in this regard, sought legal advice in the matter and may be approaching the judiciary against Pinarayi.
The CPI(M) has already taken a firm stand that the Sangh Parivar is invoking the spectre of an incident that took place almost half a century ago as part of a political campaign for tarnishing the image of the party. “It is a political stunt. They are on a misinformation campaign against the CPI(M), the Kerala State and its Chief Minister,” alleged a top CPI(M) leader.
Jan Sangh activist Ramakrishnan, a tailor by profession, was hacked to death allegedly by a Marxist killer gang at Vadikkal in Thalassery in 1969 when former Minister MV Raghavan was the Kannur district secretary of the CPI(M). Raghavan later became a fierce enemy of the CPI(M) and floated own party, the Communist Marxist Party (CMP).
Today’s Chief Minister was at that time known simply as Vijayan and was an activist of the CPI(M)’s then youth wing, KSYF. The demand for a thorough reinvestigation in the Vadikkal Ramakrishnan murder case has now been intensified by the Sangh Pariwar following reported disclosures by his friends Umesh and Balakrishnan, who were also his friends.
Reports quoted Umesh and Balakrishnan, who claim to be eyewitnesses to the murder, as saying that the incident took place when the latter was standing near a school at Vadikkal as a demonstration of the Marxist party led by Rajagopalan, father-in-law of present State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, was passing through that spot.
Umesh and Balakrishnan were quoted as saying that they then saw a man hacking Ramakrishnan with an axe used for cutting local red stone. They also claimed to have seen Vijayan, then an ordinary KSYF activist, standing at the spot where the incident took place. The demand for probe against Pinarayi has been intensified on the basis of this ‘disclosure’.
According to Umesh, he had from that time on known that Pinarayi Vijayan was a prime accused in the Ramakrishnan murder case. He also said that Ramakrishnan, whose internal organs had come out in the attack, was taken to the hospital in an autorikshaw. It is not clear whether evidences are available to corroborate the ‘disclosures’.
The murder of Vadikkal Ramakrishnan is said to be the first incident of murderous political violence between the CPI(M) and the Sangh Pariwar in Kannur in Kannur where scores of workers from both sides have lost lives. The main focus of the recently-concluded Jana Raksha Yatra of the BJP was the CPI(M) violence against its workers in Kannur.