The brutal murder of Youth Congress leader SP Shuhaib by a Marxist killer gang on February 12 at Mattannur in Kannur district, known for its history of murderous political violence, has left the CPI(M) totally defenceless just when the triennial four-day State conference of the party is beginning at Thrissur on Thursday.
The killing has also led to a severe trust deficit between the State leadership of the party and its Kannur unit, its strongest district unit in the entire country, as there is a feeling that the latter is letting such atrocities happen under its watch in total defiance of the former, which had a year ago declared its resolve to work for lasting peace in the turbulent district.
The issue has caused much discomfort for the State leadership which had hoped the conference to be a smooth affair despite its differences with the faction in the central leadership headed by General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri over the issue of forging an electoral understanding with the Congress to fight the BJP.
Shuhaib’s murder, for which two CPI(M) activists have already been arrested, is expected to trigger discomforting discussions in the State conference. The leadership of the Kannur unit, to which many of the top State leaders belong, is certain to come under intense fire for letting the brutal murder take place.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, a senior Politbureau member from Kannur, is learnt to have conveyed his unhappiness over the development to Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan. The murder has pushed not just the CPI(M) but also the lDF Government it leads and the Chief Minister, who is holding the Home portfolio, into the defensive.
According to the State leadership, Shuhaib’s murder has given the groupism-ridden State Congress an opportunity to regain its lost unity and to launch an unprecedented offensive against the CPI(M) just when the party was feeling relieved that the nation-wide campaign blitzkrieg by the RSS-BJP over the so-called ‘Red terror’ in Kerala had lost its steam.
After an all-party peace meet on February 14 last year, Pinarayi had announced that the goal of his Government and the CPI(M) was a conflict-free Kannur. However, Shuhaib’s murder within a year from then, for which the Marxists are unable to offer even a credible justification, has enabled critics to allege that the CPI(M) does not want peace to prevail in Kannur.
“The Chief Minister is totally justified if he feels that the party leadership in Kannur has let him down,” said a former CPI(M) theorist based in Kochi. “What is more damaging to the party is that the development has strengthened the rumours that Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan is not under the control of the State leadership anymore,” he admitted.
Jayarajan, accused by the BJP-RSS and Congress as the chief architect of Marxist violence in Kannur, had come under intense criticism in the party State committee a few months ago over the charge of efforts for self-glorification. This observation was reported to all party units in Kannur during the conferences held in preparation for the 22nd party congress to be held in April.
According to observers, the State leadership is of the feeling that the Kannur leadership, particularly Jayarajan, had failed – “unknowingly if not deliberately” – in convincing the party units at all levels about the necessity of sticking to the message and spirit of the decision of last February’s all-party meet to work for lasting peace.
“The party cannot justify Shuhaib’s murder as an act of defence or counter-attack. Also, the leadership does not consider this as something comparable to any instance of violence between the party and BJP-RSS. What it feels is that this murder would help only in antagonising some sections before the lok Sabha polls,” said a senior journalist with a Malayalam daily.
Observers also think that the murder may give some ammunition to the Yechuri faction, whose proposal for an understanding with the Congress was shot down by the Prakash Karat group with the support of the Kerala leadership, to launch an attack when the party holds it the 22nd Congress in Hyderabad from April 18 to 22.