Kannur Killing: Congress Demands Pinarayi Vijayan Attend Talks After ‘Peace’ Meeting Fizzles Out 

The Congress party in Kerala and Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM are at daggers drawn after a ‘peace’ meeting called to end political violence in Kannur ended in a commotion.

Senior Congress leaders, including K C Joseph, have threatened to keep away from future meetings if the state’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan does not attend the high-level talk specifically called to fix lapses in the investigation into the recent murder of a Congress worker allegedly linked to the communist party.

Congress worker Shuhaib, who was killed by a gang of four linked to the CPM, according to a police report, leading to opposition protests against the ruling CPM government.

Joseph called the meeting an “eyewash”.

The Congress claimed that the CPM is protecting the real killers of Shuhaib and presenting innocent party workers as culprits to the police. To draw attention to this charge, Congress leader K Sudhakaran started a 48-hour-long fast in Kannur on Wednesday. However, the state law minister A K Balan, said the government is willing to entrust the probe to any agency of their choice.

The meeting broadly aimed at finding solutions for peace in the Kannur district on Wednesday failed after Congress and CPM leaders got drawn into an argument. When Congress demanded the presence of CPM’s elected representatives to be present on the dais, CPM rejected it, saying it is a meeting of party workers and not elected representatives. The Congress leaders then staged a walkout.

Kannur district has been an epicentre of political clashes between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers for decades now.