Faced with the possibility of a huge setback in the civic polls to be held in September, 2015 in the context of the massive erosion taking place in its support bases, the CPI(M) in Kannur has launched a campaign to overcome the adverse circumstances created by the murder of RSS leader Manoj at Kathiroor in the district on September 1 alleged by a Marxist killer gang.
The desperate Marxist bid is also fueled by the necessity to defend their strongholds into which the BJP and its youth wing, Yuva Morcha, have started making inroads through a campaign stressing on the CPI(M)’s violent political culture in Kannur, where hundreds have lost lives in the past four decades in clashes in which the Marxists have invariably been on one side.
Apart from organising local-level campaigns, massive rallies and protest marches to police stations, the Marxists are also planning to cash-in on the serious errors figuring in the letter the Kerala Government had written to the CBI explaining why an investigation by the agency was necessary into the murder of Manoj.
The Marxists’ main effort is to establish that the party has no involvement in the murder though certain partymen could have played a role in it and that the State Home Department, ruled by Congress Minister Ramesh Chennithala, has joined hands with the RSS and BJP to victimise activists of the CPI(M) and trap its leaders in the case.
The CPI(M) was forced to launch the desperate bid following reports that the efforts of the BJP and Yuva Morcha to make inroads into the hundreds of so-called party villages where Marxist writ used to reign supreme till recently were becoming successful due to the people’s increasing aversion to politics of violence allegedly pursued by the Marxists.
Observers are of the opinion that the Marxists will be unable to counter the BJP campaign through its usual method of violence because of the unpopularity they have earned after the murder of Manoj. The brutal killing of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan in Onchiyam in Kozhikode district in May, 2012 had also affected the CPI(M)’s image
in Kannur.
CPI(M) leaders in Kannur are now crying foul by saying that the Congress-led UDF Government is trying to appease the BJP and RSS by framing false charges against partymen in connection with the Manoj murder. They say that the inclusion of charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the accused is another indication of this joint programme.
“We are on a campaign demanding withdrawal of the inclusion of the UAPA charges,” said P Jayarajan, Kannur district secretary of the CPI(M). “We want the police to stop framing false cases and charges against our activists in connection with the murder. The police should end its tendency of dancing to the tunes of the RSS-BJP,” he said.
As part of the campaign, the CPI(M) will hold protest marches to police stations in Thalassery and Kannur on October 29 and 31 respectively and local-level campaigns and massive rallies have already started as part of this.
Playing the victim, the CPI(M) is arguing that the serious errors found in the Kerala Government’s letter to the Centre seeking a CBI probe into the murder of Manoj had been committed deliberately. Written 16 days after the murder, the letter said that nobody had been arrested till then while actually three Marxists had already been in the police’s custody.
“That letter, if reports are true, is a lot mysterious,” said a CPI(M) leader. “At least three of the accused had been in custody by then. It seems that the Government, under pressure from the BJP to ensure a CBI probe, was apprehensive that the agency might refuse to take over the case pointing out that the Kerala Police themselves were making good progress,” he added.