Indications that the relative calm presently prevailing in Kerala’s politically volatile Kannur district, where two brutal murders took place in CPI(M)-RSS clashes in October alone, may not last for long came out on Tuesday, even before 24 hours were over after an all-party peace meet decided on measures to check violence, with the Marxists rejecting some of the proposals put forward by the police for ensuring peace.
“We reject the proposal (the Kannur district police chief has put forward) that the measures the police adopt in the name of peace should not be responded against because all police officers are not impartial in their actions. It is necessary to respond against officials who act with bias,” said CPI(M)’s Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Jayarajan’s statement was in response to the decisions taken at the district level all-party peace meet convened in Kannur on Monday by District Collector Mir Mohammad Ali as directed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the context of the murders of local CPI(M) leader Mohanan at Pathiriyad and RSS-BJP activist Ramith at Pinarayi on October 10 and 12 respectively.
The meeting decided that a cross-party panel – yet to be constituted – would visit the house of the victim in the case of a murder taking place in the district in the future. Every political party would have three members in this panel and the parties should specify the names of their representatives for the panel in three weeks, the district collector said after the meeting.
Though the BJP had earlier said it would not cooperate with any peace effort that was not initiated directly by the Chief Minister, its leaders including district president P Sathyaprakash participated in the meeting while top leaders of the CPI(M), including the district secretary, stayed away. Almost all political parties were represented at the meeting.
Referring to this, the BJP complained at the meeting itself saying that the Marxists were not taking the efforts to restore peace seriously. CPI(M)’s State committee member KP Sahadevan who represented his party at the meeting said that individuals did not matter but party mattered and that he was at the meeting to convey his party’s decisions and views.
“What the Chief Minister has done with his absence is an act of escapism,” said senior RSS leader Valsan Thillankery who took part in the meeting. “We participated in the meeting because we are prepared to make any compromises for restoring peace in Kannur,” Thillankery said after the all-party meet.
The meeting decided that regular meetings at village levels would be held on the third Saturday of every month. The Sub-Inspector in charge of the police station of the area will be the convener of these meetings and the joint convener will be the Revenue Village Officer. These committees will meet whenever there is an incident of political violence irrespective of its magnitude.
The all-party meet also decided to hold a district-level peace meet whenever there was a political murder in the district. This meeting will take place at 5.00 PM on the day of the incident and it will be held on the following day if an incident takes place after evening. Stringent action will be taken to check social media-based campaigns inciting violence.
All parties had favoured the decisions taken at the meeting. However, there was no decision or understanding on important issues like transformation of small issues into conflicts, collecting of weapons by political parties and the autocratic attitude certain parties were allegedly adopting in areas where they were influential.