On June 24, the activists of the Students Federation of India—the student wing of the CPI(M)—attacked former Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s office in Kerala's Wayanad. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Left Democratic Front convener E.P. Jayarajan condemned the attack, but the hooliganism from the cadres has put the red party in a tight spot.
The reason
SFI made the attack alleging Wayanad MP Gandhi’s “inaction” on a recent Supreme Court directive that Eco-Sensitive Zones must be established around all protected areas, wildlife sanctuaries and national parks. If such a buffer zone gets established around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, it might affect the livelihood of people from districts like Wayanad, Palakkad and Idukki. Soon after the attack, Gandhi shared a copy of the letter he had sent to the prime minister and the Kerala chief minister seeking their attention to the issue.
SFI state president K. Anusree told the media that the SFI state committee had not instructed its cadres to conduct any protest. And the Wayanad comrades’ decision to attack the MP office on this very subject had baffled both the CPI(M) and SFI leadership.
Timing
The attack happened when the country is preparing for the presidential election. The CPI(M) decided to support Yashwant Sinha to facilitate the coming together of anti-BJP forces. A section of cadres had criticised the leadership for backing Sinha, who had been with the BJP and later the Trinamool Congress. (The party had to disable its comment section after posting the official statement issued by Sinha.)
Ideally, the election phase should have been a time to show more opposition unity. A good show in the presidential election would have strengthened the chances for a bigger coalition of anti-BJP forces. Vandalism by the SFI activists has now become a blot on this “opposition unity”.
“The act by the SFI has become something that would help the BJP,” said N.M. Pearson, political observer. “The Indian politics is now divided into BJP and non-BJP. The attack is something that weakens the non-BJP front. Also, I do not think the CPI(M) leadership would sponsor such an attack. But it shows that SFI has become an organisation that can do hooliganism that even CPI(M) cannot even support. And, that is a major issue. The [student organisation] has become a bhasmasuran that is not politically conscious. If they were politically conscious, they would not have done this. And, dealing with such an organisation will be a major challenge for the CPI(M).”
A paradigm shift in politics
Kerala’s political culture has undergone a churn in recent years. Personal attacks and verbal abuses on leaders from other parties seem to have become normalised.
As the ruling party in the state and the party with the strongest hold in the Malayali cyber and cultural space, the CPI(M) has had a crucial role in normalising this political culture.
“Respecting the opposition is very important in a democracy,” said Pearson. “What CPI(M) is practicing is an annihilation politics in Kerala. It is this annihilation politics that is leading CPI(M) to such troubles. They have created or fed the idea that opposition leaders can be attacked ruthlessly."
Pearson noted that practicing such a politics would lead to the destruction of CPI(M)’s identity. "The party has lost its ideology and is facing an identity crisis. Even this SFI attack is a reflection of that identity crisis,” he said.
Pearson points out that violent and undemocratic methods of protest are now being practiced by every party in Kerala. “The state has reached a condition where all political parties are getting attracted to hooliganism. And that is the paradigm shift that happened in the state,” he said.
