The politics of blood

Venu Menon in Thiruvananthapuram

The death of a Bharatiya Janata Party activist in Kannur early this month and the current police alert in parts of North Kerala following clashes between Communist Party of India-Marxist and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh cadres focuses fresh attention on the defining feature of coalition politics in Kerala -- the gory tradition of political annihilation.

It has earned the state a distinctive notoriety. In other turbulent parts of the country the violence is either terroristic, as in Kashmir, or plainly criminal, as in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

But in Kerala, politics inspires murder. People are killed because of their political persuasion.

The killings are condoned by political parties which have have developed a vested interest in perpetuating violence. Party cadres are now formed and deployed for the purpose of containing political opposition without, or dissidence within.

The CPI-M has emerged as the dominant force among the political groups. It commands a network of highly motivated and committed workers which doubles as a standing army of storm troopers, ever ready to confront and bludgeon opponents or critics of the party.

The CPI, a constituent of the ruling Left Democratic Front, is as much a target of the CPI-M's aggression as any other party. Ideological kinship has not ensured it immunity from the rampaging Marxist cadres. This was evident in Kasargod recently where workers of the two Communist parties fought pitched battles on the streets. The CPI, the distinct underdog in the clashes, recorded its official protest over what it described as the CPI-M's overlordship.

In the wider political arena, the BJP/RSS cadres provide the main opposition to the CPI-M -- at least on the streets, if not in the legislature. The CPI-M-RSS stand-off dates back to the 1970s when many lives were lost on both sides in the violence that characterised the decade.

The spiral of violence has spilled into the 1990s. The traditional hostility between the CPI-M and the RSS -- the Left and the far Right has not abated. Instead, it tends to pick up whenever the Left comes to power.

Since the Left Democratic Front took office in May, twelve political killings have occurred in the state. And the Sangh Parivar, with 10 victims from its ranks, has borne the brunt of the attacks most.

Initially, the BJP chose to put a pacifist face on the situation. But the killing of a Democratic Youth Front of India activist in Kollam last December, allegedly by RSS workers, confirmed that the Sangh Parivar had opted for the path of violent retaliation.

Politburo member V S Achuthanandan summed up the mood of his partymen when he declared publicly that the CPI-M would not pursue Gandhian non-violence in the face of BJP/RSS attacks. Inadvertently or not, it was a call that legitimised the culture of violence and counter-violence with the concomitant result of devaluing the rule of law. The cadres could now act with impunity.

It is this sort of explosive rhetoric that has seen the CPI-M being charged with unleashing a reign of terror in the districts. But the Marxist leadership is unrepentant. It turns to history for justification, harking back to the aftermath of Independence when the 'Imperialists hunted down the Communists.'

Marxist patriarch E M S Namboodiripad sources the political violence to the in-built militancy of the RSS shakha where young men are given weapon training. He views CPI-M cadres not as aggressors, but as targets of aggression who strike back in retaliation.

The Sangh Parivar simply points to statistics and let the figures argue its case -- the death toll is the highest in areas where the CPI-M has a strong presence.

The victim-perpetrator perception is linked to the partisan view point. But what is overlooked by the leadership of either warring side is the human trauma and often the sheer barbarity of the killings. Last December, CPI-M activist Sunil Kumar was beheaded in his sleep by assailants, right in front of his wife, child and aging parents. The next morning, the victim's arm was seen dangling from a flagpole some 500 metres from the murder scene.

Weeks earlier at the Parumala Devaswom College, four BJP student had, to escape their Marxist pursuers, jumped off a bridge -- and drowned in the swift river below in full view of the college staff and students.

Thus, political killings have become an intrusive aspect of Kerala's social life. The Parumala episode showed that the fatalities have crossed over from the streets into the campuses.

The violence is claiming the lives of the very young -- yet it appears almost unstoppable. It is violence spurred by the momentum of history. It goes back to the great Communist uprisings of yesteryears. Punnappra Vayalar still exerts its spell on the fledgling Marxists. In Kerala, political passion is very nearly a genetic inheritance.

Not surprisingly, the epicentre of political violence is the northern district of Kannur, the theatre of past Communist upsurges. According to police records, over 300 people have lost their lives and twice as many injured in political clashes here in the past 16 years.

Four days after the LDF government was sworn-in, a BJP leader was stabbed to death in Kannur, setting off the wave of violence that has now spread to other parts of the state.

Kannur, a Marxist stronghold, was the cradle of Communist movement. But today, It is not the triumphant march of a humanist ideology that echoes through the streets, but the shrill voice of political supremacy.

The great progressive legacy of Kannur lies obscured in a puddle of blood.