The CPI, second biggest constituent of Kerala’s ruling lDF, on Friday rejected front leader CPI(M)’s theory that “extremist Islamic organisations” were behind the ongoing people’s agitation at Mukkom in Kozhikode district against a natural gas pipeline project of the Gas Authority of India ltd (GAIl) even as the State Government aired readiness, though reluctantly, for holding talks with agitators, after two days of violent stir and brutal police action.
“We don’t think the agitation in Mukkom has any extremist links. A solution should be found immediately to the issues raised by the protestors. People’s agitations should not be quelled by (police) force,” State CPI(M) secretary Kanam Rajendran said at a Press conference held in Kochi in connection with the conclusion of the lDF’s south zone Jana Jagrata Yatra on Friday.
Kanam’s response came just hours after the CPI(M)’s Kozhikode district Secretariat claimed that ‘extremist Islamic organisations’ like the Popular Front of India, its political wing SDPI and Welfare Party of the Jama’at-e-Islami were behind the violent agitations at Eranjimavu and other villages in the Mukkom area on Wednesday and Thursday against the pipeline project.
“The lDF’s policy is to provide total support for people’s agitations. The issue in Mukkom is an isolated one. We expect a solution to it will be found soon. Completion of the GAIl pipeline project had been a mission mentioned in the lDF’s manifesto. But there are some practical problems concerning its implementation,” Kanam said.
According to the CPI(M) district secretariat, these outfits had joined hands with anti-development lobbies and “anti-left” forces in order to push the people into violent agitations in the Mukkom area. When the stir turned violent, proponents of these lobbies escaped the scene leaving the poor people of the area to bear the brunt of the police action, it said.
Kanam’s response to the CPI(M)’s ‘extremist link’ theory came amidst the criticisms against the alleged hypocrisy of the Marxists, who had led an agitation against the GAIl pipeline in Mukkom when they were in the Opposition, were now using the police under its Government’s command to quell the agitation by beating up the people and terrorising an entire region.
The people of Eranjimavu and some other villages in Mukkom area have been on a stir for over a month against the anomalies and lack of transparency in the land acquisition for the Rs 3,300-crore GAIl natural gas pipeline project and raising safety concerns regarding the pipeline that would be passing through a region with very high density of population.
The agitation turned violent on Wednesday when GAIl officials tried to resume the pipe-laying work – that had been suspended for several days – under heavy police security. As trouble erupted, the police went on a rampage in the villages for two days by beating people up, barging into houses, terrorising even women and children and arresting even the innocent.
The Government on Friday expressed willingness to hold talks with the agitators on the issue of the pipeline traversing areas with population density after top leaders of the Congress-led Opposition UDF visited the area and threatened to take over the leadership of the agitation and CPI leader Kanam registered his party’s objection to interpreting the stir as an extremist act.
Industries Minister AC Moideen of the CPI(M) will take part in the discussions to be held at the Kozhikode district collectorate on November 6. Nonagenarian Marxist and former Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan also had objected to the police action in Mukkom by saying that drowning people’s agitations in blood using police force was not part of the lDF’s policy.