Kerala political killings: RSS not in favour of President's Rule, demands Centre's intervention

Thiruvananthapuram: The RSS on Saturday demanded that the Centre depute a fact-finding probe by a statutory body into the killings of its workers in Kerala but is against the imposition of President’s rule in the state. The saffron organisation, however, has sought the Centre’s “intervention” and action within the Constitutional bounds to bring the situation under control. “We are really against dismissing a government, which is elected by the people. That will not do good,” said P Gopalan Kutty Master, the chief of Kerala RSS (Kerala Pranth Karyavahak), adding that when Article 356 was imposed in Kerala in 1959, RSS founder Guru Golwalkar had opposed it. [caption id=“attachment_3923757” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Arun Jaitley visited the family members of slain RSS worker Rajesh Edavakode who was brutally killed by a group of CPM supporters, in Thiruvananthapuram. PTI[/caption] “Guruji opposed it (President’s Rule). He then said it was wrong to dislodge a government elected by the people,” he said. The RSS is of the view that “political violence” in the state can end only through a “political change”, implying the BJP coming to power, and not through dialogue as all such efforts in the past not only went in vain but worsened the situation, he said. Master Kutty was talking to a group of journalists from Delhi, who was on a three-day visit to the areas like Kannur which witnessed violence against RSS and CPM workers, organised by Good Governance Cell of BJP. “We want that Centre should send some Commission to enquire the matter or home minister can call the chief minister and see a report on political killings. It may give good result,” he said adding it could be a statutory commission like the Human Rights Commission or the SC/ST Commission. The RSS leader said, “The BJP-RSS needs to be strengthened politically here and a political change can only put a full stop to violence.” He said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan feared that the Centre can do “something” after Governor P Sathasivam talked to the chief minister and the DGP after the murder of RSS worker Rajesh. The RSS leader accused the CPIM of always violating the dialogue process and alleged that police official of the state are working as party cadres. “From the top, including the DGP, to the bottom are working for the CPM. He is a DGP. Home ministry can do something…they can question him and seek report. If this happens things may go smoother,” Master Kutty said. He accepted that on some occasions the BJP-RSS workers also attack CPM workers but all that was in self-defence. “A planned retaliation is not good for the organisation. But when some incident takes place, sudden retaliation is necessary. Otherwise, our members will lose their morale. We say to our people, beware of things. Be prepared every time as there can be an attack at any point in time. Don’t sit down even if peace talks are going on,” Kutty said. He said that RSS was getting stronger after every attack. “Some six or seven years ago there was some stagnation in our work but after that, we organised some programs in all districts of the state. In Kannur alone, we are running 250 shakhas daily. Still, there are some pockets in some areas where we can’t go. Things are changing now. There are many in CPM ‘party villages’ where their mind is with us but due to fear they don’t come out in the open,” he said. He said that since 2016 several rounds of dialogue took place between the two sides including between the top leaders of both CPM and BJP-RSS but all of them were in vain because after every dialogue they come up with some bigger attacks. “Spiritual leader Sri M once took initiative to end the political killings. He talked to Sarsanghchalakji (RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat). We were asked by Sarsanghchalakji to hold dialogue. We followed his directions and talks for peace began. Since then several rounds of dialogues have taken place but they did not work,” he said. Kutty said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan looked sincere in every meeting and always promised to control the party cadres and take strong action against the attackers but it never happened in reality. On being asked about the demands of RSS which can end the political killings, the RSS state unit chief said, “Only three. First, we have no freedom for organisational work and we want that. Second, impartial police action and third talks between leaders on both sides. They should sit and communicate together and try to solve the crisis.” He said in principle they agree with all these demands but after every dialogue, the attacks continue. Citing an instance a year ago, he said after two sittings 13-year-old Vismaya’s father Santosh was killed. “I called the CM and the party secretary and they said this was not by their party cadres. They said they were people not under their control. They again said they will take some steps and will not help the culprits in police station and in courts. But they did it again,” he alleged. “After the killing of Rajesh, again we sat in an all party conference. Some of our members were not ready to participate because they (CPM) breached the assurances given in talks. But the sarsanghchalak was in favour of talks. Same discussion, same demands and same reply were there. But after that the attacks continued,” he said.