The arrest of five CPI(M) workers in connection with the murder of Youth Congress worker, S.P. Shuhaib, 30, in Kannur, Kerala, has further dented the image of the party in the state.
Kerala has seen a rise in political killings after the Left Democratic Front government came to power in 2016. Nineteen party workers—of the BJP, the Indian Union Muslim League, the Social Democratic Party of India and the CPI(M)—have been killed in the state since 2016, of which eight were killed in Kannur. From 1969 to 2017, close to 230 people have been killed by political rivals in Kannur, of which, close to hundred were CPI(M) workers.
Though the Congress and the CPI(M) have been at loggerheads in the state, killings have been rare in the recent past though scuffles were quite regular. The only time the Congress encouraged political violence in the state was during Emergency when its men were accused of killing CPI(M) workers. In the recent years, the fight has been mostly between the BJP-RSS and the CPI(M).
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Said poet-activist Sugathakumari to THE WEEK, “With so many killings happening in my state, I feel ashamed to be a Malayali. Political violence in Kerala has been happening frequently, more so in the last 20 to 25 years. How I wish the leaders were sincere. If only the leaders were sincere, such violence would stop. Leaders want killings to continue as it helps them. They are selfish.”
And it is not just the outsiders who are affected by the political violence. At the state conference of the CPI(M) in Thrissur, the Kannur leadership of the party was reviled by delegates during a discussion on the organisational report. Many leaders felt that the murder was badly timed and will benefit the Congress and the BJP at a time when the CPI(M) and the LDF have started preparing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
At the state conference, general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, “Physically attacking political opponents is not the policy of the CPI(M). I assure that there will be strong action if there is any aberration.” Under pressure from Yechury's comments, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan conveyed his annoyance to Kannur district party secretary P. Jayarajan. He was asked to suspend all party workers named by the police as accused in the murder case. Jayarajan was himself arrested more than once in connection with the killings of rival party workers.
The Congress leaders have said that they will continue to agitate till the government hands over the case to the CBI. Shuhaib’s parents said they were not satisfied with the police investigation. If the government does not agree, the Congress will approach the High Court with a petition to seek a CBI probe into the case.
Said K.T. Jaleel, local self-government minister, to THE WEEK, “In my opinion all political killings should stop.” Jaleel fought the 2016 assembly elections as an LDF-backed independent. He assured that as a minister he will do everything possible to prevent political killings from happening in the state. “I don’t belong to the CPI(M). But I am sure I will be able to persuade the CPI(M) members to initiate talks so as to end political violence once and for all in the state,” he said.
M.M. Hassan, state president of the Congress, told THE WEEK, “The CPI(M) is targeting innocent Muslims in Kerala. If this is how it goes, the CPI(M) will lose the support of minority communities in the state soon. Muslims in Kerala are feeling insecure under the government.”
CPI(M) MP M.B. Rajesh said that even his partymen are being killed frequently in the state. “We will put an end to it. We need the support of other parties. If any member of the CPI(M) is involved in the killing of the Youth Congress worker, strict action will be taken against them. Our party will never approve of violence,” said Rajesh to THE WEEK.
"We will not retaliate," said K.C. Venugopal, Congress MP to THE WEEK. “We will follow the Gandhian principle of non-violence.” He said he finds it baffling to see the CPI(M) talking passionately about atrocities happening in other parts of the country and then turning a blind eye to the mindless killings in the state. “Our workers have been constantly targeted. In Kannur district itself, we have lost 50 workers. But it is mostly the CPI(M)-BJP violence that hogs the limelight.”
The CPI(M) members are known to kill anyone who stands against their ideology, said P.K. Kunhalikutty, MP, Muslim League, to THE WEEK. “It is a very dangerous situation prevalent in the state,” he added.
The post-mortem report of Shuhaib lists 41 hack wounds. Shuhaib, in fact, was a CPI(M) sympathiser till a few years ago. He was the lone breadwinner of his family and has three sisters. The fact that Shuhaib was from a minority community has also come as a setback to the ruling party at a time when it is trying to woo minorities in the state to counter the BJP.
Sumayya, 23, the sister of Shuhaib, has written a letter to the chief minister, seeking his intervention to end political violence in Kannur. She wrote, “No one should die like this in future. Let my brother be the last name in the account book of political killings. Let none be killed like this anymore.”