Amid the BJP’s determined efforts to bring the Marxist violence against BJP-RSS leaders and workers in Kannur into national discourse, Union Minister and senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Wednesday promised all possible Central help, including deployment of Central forces, to Kerala’s CPI(M)-led Government to put an end to political violence in the district, infamous as Kerala’s Marxist killing field.
“If the State Government feels that the situation (in Kannur) is out of its hands, it should seek the Centre’s help. They should ask the Centre for more (Central) forces to protect the people,” Rudy, who visited the family of local RSS leader Choorakad Biju (34), who was hacked to death by a Marxist killer gang on May 12 near Pazhayangadi in Payyannur, Kannur, told newsmen. The State BJP has demanded imposition of AFSPA in Kannur.
Stating that BJP’s wish was to see the return of peace in Kannur, the Union Minister said the State Government and the Chief Minister should intervene to ensure justice in Kannur. The Centre’s intervention in Kannur was becoming necessary because of the failure of the State administration in ensuring peace and justice, he told newsmen on Wednesday afternoon.
After visiting the family of Biju, the slain RSS Karyavahak of Ramanthali, at their house in Payyannur, Rudy said, “It is the job of the State Government to protect the life (of the people). We are very deeply anguished. Action should be taken over such brutal killings that are taking place here.”
Rudy observed that fear was lurking among the people of Kannur that was unseen in any other region in the country. He will submit detailed reports on the situation in Kannur and on the intensity of the Marxist threat the RSS-BJP workers were facing there to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.
Complaining that his family had no hope of getting justice from the CPI(M)-led Government in Kerala, the slain RSS leader’s father told Rudy that a CBI investigation alone could bring his son’s killers before the law. The Minister assured him that every required step would be taken to ensure justice.
A Marxist gang had murdered Biju, 12th accused in a case pertaining to the murder of CPI(M) worker CV Dhanaraj of Payyannur, on May 12 evening after waylaying his motorbike using a Toyota Innova car. Two of the seven-member killer gang have already been arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Meanwhile, State BJP president Kummanam Rajase-
kharan said that the police had registered a case against him in the name of posting a video in the social media, which allegedly showed CPI(M) activists celebrating the killing of Biju, as part of an effort by the lDF Government to divert public attention from the real issue of CPI(M)-sponsored violence against BJP workers.
The Kannur town police had on Tuesday registered a case against Kummanam over the video, which the CPI(M) says is misleading and intended at fomenting Marxist-RSS tension, on the basis of a complaint lodged by the Kannur district president of the SFI. Kummanam said he was convinced about the video’s authenticity and was even prepared to go to prison over the issue.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had questioned the authenticity of the video Kummanam had posted in the social media and had told the State Assembly on Tuesday that the BJP leader was likely to be booked over it. The Kannur district leadership of the CPI(M) was the first to attack Kummanam over his social media post.
In a similar development, Thiruvananthapuram district BJP chief S Suresh, against whom a case has been registered for an allegedly inflammatory statement, said he did not fear fabricated cases. While protesting on Tuesday against the attack against a BJP worker, he had said that the lDF Government’s police would not be able to stop the BJP-RSS if they respond to such attacks.