Kerala Opposition must act with responsibility
Two weeks have passed since the killing of two Maoists by the Thunderbolt commandos of the Kerala Police in an encounter in the jungles of Nilambur in Malappuram district, but the political battle over the incident in the State has refused to die. As it happens very often in such Maoist-related cases, rights groups, constituted mostly by former Naxalites-Maoists, have come out in protest, claiming that the commandos killed the left extremists — a 61-year-old top leader of the movement and a 45-year-old woman, both hailed from Tamil Nadu — in unilateral firing in a fake encounter as it had allegedly been happening in several Maoist-infested regions of the country.
The rights groups' protests would have died down naturally after some legal battles, had it not been for the Communist Party of India (CPI), the second biggest constituent of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led ruling left Democratic Front, which raised doubts about the veracity of the police's claim that they had fired at the extremists after they were fired upon. CPI's State secretary Kanam Rajendran alleged that the incident in the Nilambur jungles on the morning of November 24, was an act of police atrocity, perpetrated with the support of the State Home Department, which was being looked after by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of the CPI(M). Rajendran even went to the extent of accusing the CPI(M) of forgetting its own stand objections to capital punishment and quelling left extremists through physical elimination. His remarks must have surely come as a major embarrassment to not just the CPI(M) leaders but also the party cadre.
Several analysts saw the CPI's attack against the police and the Home Department as a move that had been prompted by its dissatisfaction with the big brotherly manner in which the CPI(M) was handling affairs of the State administration. While the Marxists did not find it necessary to openly respond to the CPI's allegations, the issue became a real irritant for it when some of its own influential young leaders shared the CPI's sentiment on the matter. The issue created divisions within the Congress as well, with its State chief VM Sudheeran calling for a judicial probe into the incident, while Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala justified police action. The Revolutionary Socialist Party, which until two-and-a-half years ago, was a partner of the left Front, joined the row by reminding the mainstream left that the Maoists were people who had taken up the Marxist ideology when the leftists had dropped it. Clearly, the tussle has come out in the open.
The CPI(M), however, was not swayed by criticisms. Its Government has made it clear that, while it did not want to undermine the morale of the police force, it would wait for the report of a magisterial probe, ordered into the incident (apart from an ongoing Crime Branch probe), mandatory as per Supreme Court guidelines concerning encounter killings. The entire development shows how irresponsible the responsible parties have become for the sake of petty politics. It seems that they are yet to understand the necessity of putting up a bold and joint front in matters that concern national security and peace within the society. The faster they learn it, the better.