The Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala is all set to commit gross violation of citizens' rights in the name of taking steps to counter the 'State Secretariat siege' to be held by the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF from Monday even as leftist leaders have reiterated that no amount of threats from the Government can defeat their agitation.
Thousands of State police personnel, soldiers from Central forces and commandos are being deployed in the capital city, Thiruvananthapuram, and other parts of the State to face the tens of thousands of agitators who would lay siege to the Secretariat demanding resignation of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy over his alleged involvement in the infamous solar scam.
Hundreds of soldiers from various paramilitary forces were deployed at Thiruvananthapuram and other places like Kannur, known as Kerala's Marxist heartland, on Saturday morning itself and more were on their way to the State. The capital city's control will be in the hands of the Central force personnel who have come with all kinds of battle gears from Sunday night.
The Government's plan is to deploy over 5,000 Kerala Police personnel in full riot gear at and around the State Secretariat premises and thousands more on inter-district borders to prevent agitators from reaching the capital. For the first time in Kerala's history, commandos are being deployed to deal with a protest programme of democratic organisations. The police move to violate citizens' rights is so intense that people in the capital district will not have the right to offer food or accommodation to their guests at their own homes because the police think that the visitors could be agitators. The police have already served notices to several house-owners in this regard.
The citizens' right to travel has been hampered as the police are examining railway reservation details to prevent agitators from reaching the capital. Buses bound for Thiruvananthapuram are being checked. "The situation is such that any person could be branded as an agitator. It is plain violation of fundamental rights," said a leading lawyer of the High Court. Instructions have been issued by the police to the city corporation, hotels, lodges and even common people not to offer even basic facilities to agitators. In the past two days, the police had forcibly closed auditoriums and other facilities where they suspected food and water would be served to the leftists.
The first indications of how the police were planning to defeat the stir came out at Jagathi in the capital on Saturday when police officers used force on former Finance minister TM Thomas Isaac during their efforts to close down an outlet arranged for serving food to agitators with the permission of the city corporation. "Do Chief Minister Chandy and his Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan think that they can defeat this movement with their threats and police forcesIJ" asked Pinarayi Vijayan, State CPI(M) secretary. "We are coming here to hold a peaceful protest ad not to perpetrate violence. I would advise them to act accordingly," he said.