BJP-CPM killings: The story of blood and gore which scripted Kerala's politics

On 1 September 2014, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary was stabbed to death in Kannur district of Kerala. All of 42, Elanthottathil Manoj was brutally murdered by CPM workers. The BJP and RSS called for a 24-hours bandh following the murder. This brazen killing of an RSS functionary was not an isolated incident. Political killings form a part of the folklore in this volatile region. An opinion piece in The Hindu, talks about how such violent incidents are an integral part of the BJP-CPM politics in the district, especially the southern region including Thalassery, Panur and Koothuparamba. [caption id=“attachment_1726739” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  CPM workers in Delhi. Agencies[/caption] The blood-feud began with CPM luring one of the top leadership of the BJP in the district on to their side who was at loggerheads with the party, the article said. Although the reasoning behind these killings are not so linear. The article lists out several reasons behind this unabated gore which ensues in the most literate state of India. Revenge is one of them. The killing of E Manoj was not a random murder. He was one of the accused in a case where the the present CPM district secretary P Jayarajan was stabbed by BJP-RSS workers in 1999. In response, a school teacher K T Jayakrishnan who was also Bharatiya Jana Yuva Morcha leader was brutally murdered in front of his students. The violence is almost cyclical. The article noted that the spirit of competition is not a new phenomenon but something which was embedded in the cadre since the Emergency. “The legacy of previous political hostilities between the communists and the socialists in some of these areas assumed a new violent form as CPI(M) and BJP-RSS workers started treating their areas of influence as their ‘party villages’.” Since 1980, almost 180 people have been killed in the BJP-CPM cross firing. In 2012, Idukki district secretary of the CPM, MM Mani took pride and announced during a public rally that the Communist Party “had systematically eliminated political rivals in the 1980s.” Another report in The Hindu, observed how the admission of crime by one of the senior party members in full public view was not out of guilt. Mani took pride in accepting that the murders were political and his party was directly involved in them. It brings forth the fact that politics is just not about polity anymore. Most political outfits in Kerala have lost many on account of this violent culture. But Mani’s statement brought out the fact that these killings are not merely on the party worker level but maybe the top leadership is involved and it is all a part of strategy. The rival political parties had access to country-made bombs and what is worse is that they tried to give these murders the colour of “primitive revenge killing.” Rival groups feed the residents with false theories to relate violent incidents in the district to “warfare” between warring groups. “In the narrative of the CPI(M) leadership, the history of political violence has had its roots in the communal riots that broke out in Thalassery in 1971 when CPI(M) workers were reported to have come to the rescue of the Muslim community. Primarily, however, the culture of political violence has been nurtured over the decades by the leadership of the rival parties.” In late 1980s, BJP and CPM took a break from the animosity and killings when a new kid in the block — Congress — took up the task of fighting with CPM. New rivals meant more deaths. The otherwise unaffected Kannur district experienced bomb attacks when the Congress and the CPM fought to control the region. But once Cong-CPM wars slowed down, the BJP-CPM battle started with renewed  fervour from 2007. The article reports that 41 people have been killed in more than 10 years in the district with 14 deaths happening in 2008 alone. The recent killing of Manoj has stoked fresh fears that retaliatory killings might start again in the district. With Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister, it might seem to be an added advantage for the Sangh parivar workers in Kerala but the CPM cadre is too boasting of giving a strong competition to the BJP-RSS thus checking their clout in the region.