Kerala’s Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said that the CPI(M)-led lDF Government was prepared to hold peace meets in order to search for ways for restoring normalcy in Kannur, the northern Kerala district ravaged by Marxist-RSS violence but he alleged that the reason for violence and murders in Kannur was the deliberate interference by the RSS.
“The reason for the unfortunate incidents in Kannur is the deliberate interference by the RSS,” Vijayan said in the State Assembly while replying to a notice for adjournment motion on the violence in Kannur, moved by former Minister KC Joseph of the Congress, representing Iritti constituency in Kannur district which had witnessed the murder of an RSS activist recently.
The statement of the Chief Minister, hailing from Pinarayi village in Kannur where an RSS-BJP activist was killed just a week ago, came at a time when the BJP was complaining that the Government was not even convening a peace meet. Seven lives had been lost in political violence in Kannur since the results of the Assembly election were declared in May.
Pinarayi said his Government was ready to hold peace meet in Kannur but he wanted “those concerned” to decide that there would be no more killings. Discussions would first be held in the district level and State-level talks would be held after that, he said but the BJP responded by saying that there was no point in holding local level peace meets.
While seeking leave for the adjournment motion, Joseph pointed out that the recent political murders had pushed the entire Kannur district into panic but the Chief Minister disagreed with it. He said that Kannur was only in the sixth position in the list of districts with regard to the number of murders as per the statistics for the past five years.
That a panic situation was prevailing in Kannur was part of an RSS campaign, Pinarayi said, adding that all murders that had happened in the district were not political killings. Only five political murders had taken place in Kannur since the lDF came to power, he claimed. He also accused the RSS of importing trouble-makers into Kannur from other districts.
However, the Opposition argued that the responsibility for the violence in Kannur was not limited to the BJP-RSS but the CPI(M) was equally to blame. They reminded the Government that State CPI(M) secretary had recently issued statements that amounted to inciting his partymen to perpetrate violence.
Dharmadom, the home constituency of the Chief Minister in Kannur district had witnessed two murders — of local CPI(M) leader Kuzhichalil Mohanan (52) at Pathiriyad village and RSS-BJP activist, Ramith (27), just half a kilometer away from the CM’s house in Pinarayi — in less than 48 hours last week.
Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy asked the Government to convene an all-party meeting on Kannur situation, which should be shared by the Chief Minister himself. The Opposition was willing to cooperate with the Government in this matter, he said but Pinarayi replied to this saying that what Kannur wanted was not some temporary truce but long-lasting peace.
The notice for the adjournment motion and the discussion on it led to noisy Opposition protests in the House after members from the Treasury benches, especially a young Marxist MlA from Kannur district, tried to shout Joseph down when he was speaking. The Opposition staged a walkout protesting against the refusal of leave for the motion by Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan.
State BJP general secretary MT Ramesh said that his party was ready to cooperate with the peace meets proposed by the Government. “We welcome the Chief Minister’s statement on the Government’s readiness to hold a peace meets but local level talks are irrelevant,” he said.