The Kerala CPI(M) on Sunday said that the Marxist Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, was ready to lead efforts for peace in violence-ravaged Kannur provided the RSS-BJP took the initiative for that by approaching him first. The BJP rejected the offer saying it could not accept the Marxists’ “feudalistic” mentality.
The CPI(M) made the “offer” to the BJP-RSS in the context of the tension prevailing in Dharmadom, the constituency of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Kannur district, where a 52-year-old CPI(M) worker and young a BJP activist were hacked to death within a span of 48 hours last week.
“The CPI(M) is ready for any kind of peace talks. But the RSS should first come forward to end the murders. The Chief Minister will make arrangements for the peace efforts if somebody from the RSS approaches him,” Kerala CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said, accusing BJP president Amit Shah of exhorting the RSS workers to perpetrate violence in Kannur.
“Their central leadership should intervene to correct the wrong RSS methods in Kannur. The Prime Minister himself should advise the RSS in this regard. They are importing gangs into Kannur from outside in order to finish off the CPI(M),” Kodiyeri said after visiting the family of Kuzhichalil Mohanan (52), a CPI(M) activist who was murdered in Kannur last week.
The BJP rejected the CPI(M)’s condition saying it was up to Pinarayi to take the initiative for peace efforts and that violence in Kannur was not being perpetrated by the BJP-RSS. “It is the responsibility of the CM, who is looking after the Home Affairs, to take the initiative for restoring peace in his constituency,” State BJP general secretary MT Ramesh said.
“The CPI(M) secretary is speaking in feudalists’ language. Kodiyeri, who had sabotaged the peace efforts earlier, is now saying that we should approach the CM for peace. This means that the Marxists do not want peace talks to succeed. We simply don’t want to beg for peace at the doors of the AKG Centre (State (CPI(M) headquarters),” Ramesh said in Kozhikode.
At the same time, State Director General of Police loknath Behera rejected the allegations about police’s inaction and inefficiency in Kannur. “We are investigating last week’s incidents with utmost attention. We will catch the culprits at the earliest. I can honestly say that there has been no (political) pressure on us,” Behera said in Kannur on Sunday.
Meanwhile, an uneasy calm prevailed in Dharmadom, Pinarayi Vijayan’s home constituency under which his native village Pinarayi comes, where a local CPI(M) leader and a young BJP-RSS worker were murdered last week as people struggled to overcome the shock and panic the incidents had created in them, as the police continued their vigil.
On the morning of October 10, local CPI(M) leader Kuzhichalil Mohanan, a toddy shop worker, was hacked to death near Pinarayi allegedly by RSS activists. RSS-BJP activist Ramith (27), a truck driver, was hacked to death in Pinarayi, just half a kilometer away from the Chief Minister’s house, on the morning of October 12.
These gruesome murders have pushed Kannur district, especially the Dharmadom constituency limits, into a state of shock and panic. Neither the police nor the local political leaderships have been able to instill confidence in the people about restoration of normalcy. To complicate matters further, a worker of the Islamist outfit, SDPI, was murdered on October 13 though this had no connection with the other incidents.
“There is no guarantee that violence and killing will not recur in Dharmadom. If no serious incident has occurred in this area since last Wednesday, it is probably because of the large-scale presence of the police. Everybody here fears that violence may return once the police withdraw,” said a retired Government official from Pinarayi.