In a gruesome incident, activists belonging to the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala slaughtered more than 30 ornamental pigeons which were being reared by 11-year-old Christi Devassia of Kanjikkuzhi village in Alappuzha district.
“Neighbours came to know about the incident only on Tuesday as the family members were under quarantine. Covid-19 had claimed the life of Joseph, father of Devassia,” said Asha Mukesh, ward member of the Panchayat, the first person to reach out to the family. She said the incident happened during the intervening night of June 2 and 3 right under the nose of V S Achuthanandan, former Chief Minister, whose ancestral home is in the vicinity.
The slaughtered pigeons consisted of rare varieties like Boccaro, American Fantail, Indian Fantail, Hungarian Mix and Modena which were painstakingly collected by the sixth standard student from friends and well-wishers.
“All the pigeons were my pets and used to play with me as if they were my own brethren,” a weeping Christie told The Pioneer. His sister Sanjana said the birds never left Christie alone and were with him throughout the day.
“It was on the morning of June 3 we saw the caraccas of the birds when our mother went to feed them,” said Sanjana. Since the entire family was under quarantine and isolation, they could not communicate to the outside world anything about the incident, she said.
The six-member family was under isolation following the death of Christie’s grandfather Joseph and there was no one to help them to get food and essential materials. The needs of the family were taken care of by Seva Bharathi, a Sangh Parivar outfit. Seva Bharati volunteers are the frontline warriors against the pandemic in Kerala and ensure that help reaches those in distress.
Devassia’s family members are fellow travellers of the CPI(M). But during the Covid-19 pandemic, the party activists kept off the house which put the former in crisis. “We attended to their call for help and offered them all assistance despite the fact that all family members were in quarantine,” said Jayakrishnan, Seva Bharati, district secretary, Alappuzha.
The slaughtering of the birds is seen as a stern warning issued by party leadership to its cadres and fellow travellers not to have anything to do with Sangh Parivar as part of its efforts to eradicate Hindu communalism, said Mukesh. They had ordered Devassia and family not to have any kind of association with them. Since Devassia did not pay any attention to the party diktat, the CPI(M) commissars struck back by slaughtering the ornamental doves being reared by Christie.
“My son is in a state of shock because of the demise of my father with whom he had close relations. The two were attached to each other and it was the grandfather who initiated Christie to the world of birds,” said Devassia.
Though organisations like Deena Dayal Seva Kendra and Swadeshi Jagran Manch have procured some pigeons and handed them over to the family, the boy remains in a sombre mood.
The CPI(M) activists are known as tough task masters, especially with cadres who do not obey the party diktats. The Pappinissery Snake Venom Centre owned by former CPI(M) leader M V Raghavan was set to fire by the party activists in 1987 following his expulsion from the party. The comrades burnt to death hundreds of cobras and King Cobras maintained by the Centre for harvesting venom to manufacture anti-dotes for snake bites.