More than 300 people have lost their lives in Kerala due to political violence since 28 April 1969 when Vaadikkal Ramakrishnan, a Kannur based artisan was publicly murdered by his rivals in full daylight.
While the prime accused in that murder moves around the State accompanied by a cavalcade of high-end SUVs, Leela, his widow meets both ends of life by selling sweetmeats made in her tiny kitchen. There are hundreds of women like Leela across Kerala who were forced into widowhood because of the political violence for which there is no dearth in the State. Once the initial shock gets over, the victims and families are dumped into the dustbin of history only to be remembered on “balidaan” day. The highways and thoroughfares from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram are full of martyr memorials built by political parties to perpetuate the memories of the fallen activists even as the close relations of these victims struggle hard to earn two-square meals a day.
A small mission titled “Sarva Mangalam” has been launched in Kerala by the New Delhi based Dr Mangalam Swaminathan Foundation to help the victims of political violence in the State. The Foundation undertook a comprehensive survey of the political murders that took place in Kerala since 1969 and found to its horror that the next kin of the victims were leading a hand to mouth existence.
“Each political murder lead to a family getting orphaned as it is the household’s bread winner who falls prey to the knives and swords of the enemies. We enumerated more than 200 families which deserve financial assistance,” said R Balasankar, chairman and managing trustee of the Foundation.
The foundation received more than 100 applicants from the victim families and picked 51 of them based on their financial needs. “Each family is being offered Rs 2,000 per month as pension for their survival. We know that it is too meagre an amount as a pension but the issue is someone has to make a beginning. We do prey to Almighty to bless us with resources to offer pension to all families of political murders,” said Balasankar.
T P Radhakrishnan, project director, Sarva Mangalam, said that it was the ordinary activists who end up as victims of political murders whioch are nothing but a turf war between local chieftains. “Misery, deprivation and humiliation form the balance sheets of these political violence as hundreds of promising lives have been cut short and many families have gone astray. This is the social impact of the political murders in the State.