Murderous call by yet another CPM leader in Kerala

Could this be a good example of dialectical materialism? Party general Prakash Karat says that CPM doesn’t brook any form of violence against its political opponents and his Kerala unit secretary repeats his boss’s statement. But his cavalier local leaders do not seem to care and say the opposite: one of them, MM Mani, rose to global fame last month by admitting in public that his party had plotted and killed its opponents. If Mani’s video shocked the state and the country with his crudity and murderous callousness, and embarrassed the party leadership to which he was quite close, another video aired by Malayalam TV Channels on Monday is even worse. [caption id=“attachment_357872” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“MM Mani, rose to global fame last month by admitting in public that his party had plotted and killed its opponents. PTI”]  [/caption] In this unverified footage of a public meeting, said to be two-years-old, the local secretary of CPM in a north Kerala town is heard threatening a dissident leader, TP Chandrasekharan, that he would be beheaded if he didn’t mend his ways. Coincidentally or not, the dissident leader was killed on 4 May with 51 hacks on his head and face. The state is yet to recover from the shock of the murder and the CPM stock tanked big time, also losing a crucial by-election in the process. Still, the CPM says it’s committed to its policy against violence. The party, through some of its leaders and proxies, since then has been desperately trying to cover up, deflect public opinion by suggesting contrasting conspiracy theories, resist police investigation, threaten police officers and the media. A number of its cadres and local leaders have been arrested along with the members of a notorious criminal gang which has allegedly executed the murder. Media reports say that the party leaders were involved in the murder, while the slain leader’s widow, herself a former CPM cadre, insists that without the knowledge of senior leaders of the party, such a murder couldn’t have been executed. Several CPM cadres, including a powerful local leader, who pleaded innocence, went into hiding to finally surrender in court. The new video is significant because CPM has been maintaining that it has no role in the the murder of Chandrasekharan. Some influential party leaders also said that they had been trying to bring him back to the party and hence there was no reason to harm him. But the video, if proven true, calls their bluff. The local leader in the video is quite stern and categorical when he says that if any of the CPM cadre is attacked by Chandrasekharan’s party, he will be beheaded. Reportedly, the police is in search for such trophy videos shot by CPM cadres or others. The video apparently corroborates police theory that plot to kill Chandrasekharan was hatched two years ago. Unable to dismiss the contents of the video or own up, the CPM leaders and their TV-proxies continued to raise the bogey of anti-communism. They said, the “right-wing” media, the ruling UDF and the police are investigating the case according to a set “screenplay”. Their biggest headache is from their own camp: former chief minister and the darling of the masses, VS Achuthanandan, hasn’t given the party leaders a clean chit on the murder. He in fact has distanced himself from the state leadership’s stand on the murder, police investigation and subsequent developments. Interestingly, it is not only the CPM leaders who have made provocative calls for violence against political opponents. TV channels have also aired a video in which a sitting Muslim League MLA is heard warning the CPM cadres with dangerous consequences if they testified in a case against his party. The opposition, particularly the CPM, immediately charged that the MLA’s speech had led to a double murder and disrupted the assembly proceedings for a few days. Prakash Karat’s statement that those who violate the party’s policy will not be tolerated sounds empty in the face of inaction from the CPM’s state leadership. Under pressure from Karat and company, the state unit of the party has downgraded MM Mani, but hasn’t expelled or suspended him. Similarly, going by Karat’s assurance on violence, the local leader in the latest video should also face action, but the party dismissed it as a routine meeting speech where such emotional outbursts happen. By the way, linguistically, the local word for beheading, used by the leader in the video, is associated with the sickle, the central element of CPM’s working class logo.