“Liquidating” political enemies is all in a day’s work for Indian communist, whether in Bengal or Kerla. But in their bad year of eclipse and irrelevance , how Yechury and C bounce off comrads recollection of youth spent murderous impurity.
The CPI(M) pulled wool over the national chatteratti’s eyes for decades by claiming to be champions for the underdog. But only a home-grown Malayali and Bengali knew the truth. Their professions to “human rights”, “equity”, “democratic principles”, etc, ended at the border of the state. While tourism hacks eulogised “God’s own country”, Kerala actually competed with West Bengal for the position of purgatory of Indian Marxism-Leninism. The wheels of ‘dharma’, it’s said, are often powered by the wind. While Mamata Banerjee’s “paribartan” regime in Bengal was digging up skeletons from Marxist killing fields, sending once powerful ministers and party apparatchiks into jail, the victims of Communist crimes in Kerala wondered where the impetus would come from. And when it did, the source was the most unexpected one. MM Mani, a political organiser of the CPI(M) who served non-stop as district committee secretary of Idukki, was little known outside his sphere of influence. Like all petty bosses, he was as foul mouthed as he was arrogant. Last week, while addressing a public function in Thodupuzha, he blurted out some chilling facts from 30 years back. “We have always believed in eliminating our political rivals,” this slightly built caricature of Beria said. In a speech marked by mirth, conceit and sarcasm, he recalled how, back in 1982, the murders of 13 Congress functionaries were planned and the execution of three implemented. While the crowd listened spellbound and TV cameras whirred, Mani said, “The first person was shot dead; the second was beaten to death with blows and kicks, and, the third was stabbed to death.” The people of Kerala were embarrassed that a vile creature like Mani could thrive in their state of the educated and aware. The people of larger India, who by now have internalised the legends of Nandigram and Singur, were left stunned that there could be such a national pattern to Indian Communism’s political tradition. The Congress-led UDF government of Kerala moved quickly to take matters in hand. The Thodupuzha police registered a case against MM Mani under sections IPC 302 (murder), 109(abetment )and 118(concealing design to commit offence). Mani went underground, but emerged a few days later to give a statement which ill-served his masters. Meanwhile, in Delhi, Sitaram Yehchury resembled a boy caught cheating in an exam. His face was drained of characteristic arrogance while he performed gymnastics before the truth. Mani, it must be noted, had served eight terms (three years each) as the district secretary of Idukki. In the CPI(M), a district secretary is often more powerful than all the MPs and MLAs from the area. The bureaucracy of the district sees the party’s district secretary as the nearest they can get to the chief minister. When the party is in power, every executive decision, particularly in the grant of government tenders and postings of officials, are personally cleared by a district secretary. He reports directly to the state secretary, who, as observers of Kerala Communism are well aware, can be quite a pole in the power game, often exceeding the Chief Minister’s importance. Mani did not let out the names of his victims - it’s quite probable that he’s forgotten most of the names of the doubtless many others he has “liquidated”. But the state’s Congress leadership lost no time in producing the identities of the hapless four. Several “witnesses” were produced, but it was unclear whether they were “persuaded” to come out with the truth after so many years. Those killed were Mullankolli Mathai in 1981. In the following year, 1982, Anchery Baby and Muttukkad Nanappan joined Mani’s list. A special police team constituted under the leadership of P Prakash, the SP (Headquarters) has already visited the homes of the persons killed as referred by Mani. The officer has also made a survey of the sites of the killings. Mani’s vainglorious breast-beating could not have come at a worse time for the CPI(M), which is already cornered over the brutal assassination of dissident leader TP Chandrashkeran at Onchiyam ,in the erstwhile communist heartland in Vadakara area of Kozhikode district. Having lost power in last year’s election, the CPI(M) is out on a limb, with no control over the Malayalam press which, in tandem with the revolving door tradition of Kerala politics, is now in an anti-Left phase. The reactions of the party’s top leaders betray the Indian Communist’s unrepentant tradition. Prakash Karat, instead of expressing regret, has chosen to follow the Stalinist style of branding Mani as “mad” or “reactionary” or both. He said in a statement in Delhi that the CPI(M) would “initiate action” against Mani. On the other hand, the all-powerful state secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, was guarded in his statement on Mani while addressing a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram. He explained away Mani as a “deviation” from the party line. When pressed for clarification, the arrogant leader abruptly rose from his seat and declared the press conference over. A question that hands is — do Vijayan, Karat and Yehchury subscribe to the principles which Mani’s political career seems to have been guided by? If the man could be kept in his chair for eight terms, he must have served his superior comrades well. Is it possible that Mani’s crimes were “isolated’ cases? The evidence says no. Those old enough to recall the Kannur killings, which began in 1999 and persist in the form of pogrom s against RSS and Congress workers, know the true face of the CPI(M). In that political volatile district, which is considered the “nursery” of the CPI(M), the party maintains regular killer squads. On May 31, 1996, the BJP’s Kannur district secretary Panniyanoor Chandran was murdered while he was returning home with his wife. In December 1999, a RSS worker, KT Jayakrishnan, who taught in a primary school for a living, was murdered while he was taking classes. His little students watched as he was hacked to death. Before leaving, the killers took care to write down on the black board a threatening message for anybody who gave witness against the crime. Recently, “capital punishment” was pronounced on a Muslim League activist, Shukoor, by a CPI(M) “court” in Taliparamba in Kannur district. His “crime”, according to police reports, was blocking the vehicle along with other activists, of the vehicle of the CPI(M) Kannur district secretary, P Jayarajan, and the DYFI state secretary, TV Rajesh, who is also a MLA. The police say that Shukoor was cornered, captured and led into an empty house and his photograph was taken and send by MMS to a CPI(M) leader to ascertain whether he was in the group who had blocked the vehicle. When the confirmation came, he was executed. The case of Fazal is no different. He was a staunch CPI(M) activist and distributor of the party organ, Deshabhimani, in the volatile areas of Kodiyeri in Thalassery, which is home turf to party Polit bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. Fazal got disillusioned with the comrades and joined the Islamic fundamentalist outfit, NDF, and took to distributing their organ, Thejas. Fazal was given “capital punishment” by the CPI(M) while he was on his way to distribute the newspaper. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan immediately reached his constituency and called a press conference for blaming the RSS. But the NDF saw through Communist deceit and demanded a CBI investigation. When the premier investigating agency moved in, it nailed the CPI(M) and now several local bosses like district secretariat member Karayi Rajan and Thiruvangad local secretary Karayi Chandrashekaran have been chargesheeted. While there may not be mass graves as in Kerala, the CPI(M)’s track record in Kerala is no less horrific. Sadly for the Malayali, there is no powerful movement yet to demonise the Communists, and disgrace them for their crimes. Their reviling and worshipping alternates in five year circles. That’s the lot of the Malayali. (The writer is a commentator based in Thiruvananthapuram)
No comments:
Post a Comment