Two More Political Murders In Kerala: When Will The Bloodshed Stop?

Kerala has witnessed two political murders in recent days. Two lives have been lost to a political battle, one that could have been conveniently fought with speech and ballot.

A Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) leader, K Mohanana, was hacked to death by a suspected Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist on Monday (10 October). Following this, Remith, a Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) worker, was hacked to death in Kerala’s Kannur district by a CPI-M activist.

According to a report in Manorama Online, Remith was attacked in Pinarayi town in the district early Wednesday (12 October). The report said he had grievous injuries and was admitted to a hospital in Thalassery but succumbed to his wounds. According to the police, Remith's father was also murdered by CPI-M activists in the year 2002.

Both of these murders took place in the assembly constituency of Dharmadom, represented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

A large number of RSS and BJP workers in Kerala have been killed or injured in the past. Since the CPI-M-led government took charge in 2006, over 16 BJP and RSS activists have been brutally murdered in the state. Most of what forms the BJP’s core today was once part of the CPI-M. Those quitting the CPI-M to join rival political parties are usually murdered, claims this report on Rediff.

Kannur is one of the districts where the Marxists have a huge influence, and the CPI-M considers it insulting when a party worker joins another party.

In a first such killing, a college student named Chandran was tied to a coconut tree and murdered in 1978. More recently, in February 2016, RSS activist named Sujit was murdered before his parents.

The Left’s use of murder as a political instrument can be established from the fact that over 28,000 political murders were committed in West Bengal between 1977 and 1996.

(With inputs from IANS)