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Sangh Parivar backs off from backing Kannur peace accord

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The initiative by former Supreme Court judge, Justice V R Krishna Iyer to end the political violence in the Kannur district of Kerala has suffered a setback with the Sangh Parivar refusing to sign a peace accord evolved jointly by the Forum for Democratic and Communal Amity headed by him and the Kannur district peace committee.

Bharatiya Janata Party state president C K Padmanabhan and Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh state secretary A R Mohanan told rediff.com that they would not sign the agreement in its present form. The agreement, which envisages that the political parties would shun violence and cooperate with the law-enforcement authorities to ensure lasting peace in the northern district, was signed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India and the Indian Union Muslim League at a meeting held in Kochi on Tuesday. The BJP/RSS representatives had kept away from the meeting.

Padmanabhan said he did not think the accord would pave the way for fostering peace since senior leaders of the concerned parties, who responsible for restraining their cadres, had not associated with the exercise.

"The agreement would have been effective if senior leaders of the CPI-M like state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister E K Nayanar or politburo member V S Achutanandan had signed it. We do not know whether the agreement signed by a local leader like T K Balan has the approval of these senior leaders," Padmanabhan said.

The BJP leader said he had doubts whether the party cadres would adhere to a document signed by a local leader. Mohanan also expressed similar sentiments when asked about the RSS stand on signing the document. He said the troubles in Kannur district could not be treated as a local problem. The entire CPI-M machinery and the government headed by it are responsible for the political violence in Kannur, he added.

Mohanan said the violence could have been checked to a great extent if the police machinery controlled by Nayanar had acted in an impartial manner.

The police headed by deputy inspector general of police Shekhar Miniyodan have been acting as agents of the CPI-M. The chief minister has been maintaining an indifferent attitude when police behaved in partisan manner, he said.

"There cannot be any peace in the region unless such officers are removed," he said and added that almost all the opposition parties had echoed similar feelings. The peace initiatives in the past had failed because the police personnel were not prepared to change their approach, he said.

" We should take effective steps against the failure of peace efforts in the past before embarking on new initiatives. We should know how the past efforts failed and who were responsible for it. If we are found wrong we are prepared to correct ourselves," Mohan said. He said the chief minister had a greater responsibility in the peace process since his own constituency has become a hotbed of violence. Mohanan said eight RSS workers were killed in the CPI-M violence in Nayanar's constituency of Thalasserry in the last three years. "How can the chief minister remain unconcerned about it?" he asked.

Krishna Iyer, who has been working on the peace deal for the last two months, expressed his disappointment at the lack of adequate response to his effort from political parties, especially the Sangh Parivar. He hoped that the parties would realise the importance and join the initiative. He said that the efforts to involve all concerned in the initiative would continue.

Krishna Iyer said the leaders of the CPI-M, CPI and IUML, who took part in the initiative, had agreed to force their senior leaders sign the accord.

Meanwhile, the initiative by the artistes and social workers in the state to awaken people against the cult of violence has evoked encouraging response from different sections of the people. Noted filmmaker K P Kumaran, who mooted the idea, said a large number of people from different fields have agreed to join the journey they are undertaking from Aruvippuram (the birth place of Sree Narayana Guru) to the trouble prone Kannur from December 25 to January 1.

The artistes participating in the journey, which has been christened as 'Ammaye Kanan' (in quest of mother) would perform their arts throughout the journey, Kumaran said.

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