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Posted on: 07 May 2012

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Criminalisation of Politics in Kerala : KN Ramachandran

THE RESPONSIBILITY for the dastardly murder of com. TP Chandrasekharan (TP), leader of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) of Onchiyam in Kozhikpde district on 4th May night was first denied by the CPI(M) leadership. Still many of its own rank did not believe this denial, as

they are well aware of its past record in dealing with the dissidents, especially when they try to persist in a left stand. Unlike numerous others from MV Raghavan to recent dissidents like Murali of Shornur, who after leaving CPI(M), went over to Congress led UDF side, in spite of the offer of Vadagara parliament seat by Congress in 2009 elections, com. TP had stood firm exposing the degeneration of CPI(M) and taking leftist positions. The later arrest of a number of its local leaders of CPI(M) for conspiring and murdering him, a traitor according to the statement of its state secretary Vijayan, has convinced that it is the latest in the series of its political murders, for which Kerala has already become notorious. With the statement of CPI(M) leader VS Achuthanandan, the former chief minister and present opposition leader of LDF, condemning Vijayans statement and calling TP a brave communist has once again taken the contradiction between these leaders to yet another flash point. Whether VS will stick to his stand and fight against the criminalization of his party as a part of its overall degeneration, or once again surrender to the central party leadership, limiting his fight to yet another opportunist bout against Vijayan, is yet not clear. Only when the by-election in Neyyattinkara constituency in southern Kerala, where a CPI(M) MLA after resigning from the party is contesting as a Congress-led UDF candidate, is over in early June, the Central Committee of the CPI(M) will meet and the fate of the internecine conflict will become clear. TPs murder exposes the degeneration of the CPI(M) from Marxist positions to social democratic positions, to a bureaucratic establishment bereft of any communist values. The documents adopted by its recently held 20th Congress in the same district with much fanfare, prove this degeneration from proletarian revolutionary positions. It has led to its criminalization for long, indulging in the murder of its political opponents, whether it is its own dissidents, RSS men or other political opponents, to continue its political sway. From the 1980s when the CPI(M)-RSS clashes started in Kannur district, CPI(ML) has exposed this criminal line pursued by these political forces including CPI(M) for petty political ends, while all of them are basically united in following the neo-liberal policies, turning the UDF and LDF in to two sides of the same coin. An analysis of the political developments in Kerala from the second half of 1950s show that from the time the Congress had joined hands with the communal, caste-based, criminal forces and forged a front of reactionary parties to violently throw out the CPI ministry in 1959, Kerala had started sliding back from the advances it had made after breaking loose of its past when it was called a mad house by Vivekananda. As the famous Kerala model was soon replaced by ne-liberal policies, it started becoming one of the worst show pieces of neo-colonization, a haven for land mafias, sex tourism and what not. Side by side, the criminalization with the spread of quotation gangs, degenerating its socio-cultural-political life, was promoted by all the political formations: Congress- led UDF, CPI(M)- led LDF and BJP. Secular values were eroded, and majority as well as minority religious fundamentalism started dominating the social life. Along with this, the caste system was internalized in vulgar forms and started influencing all fields. Under the sway of post-modernism, all progressive cultural influences started getting weakened. In this degeneration, the right opportunist deviation influencing the CPI and then CPI(M) played a decisive role. As a result, though there are differences in details, the political scene in Kerala, like in any north Indian state, came under the sway of mafias. Commercialization of all walks of life became rampant. The brutality of the murder of TP with his face and head having 52 cuts with swords exposes the extent of this criminalization. The CPI(M), which still calls itself Marxist and holds the red flag, should be uncompromisingly criticized for indulging in this murder and becoming a part of this criminalization. What is happening in Kerala after the murder of TP reminds one of what happened after the

disintegration of Soviet Union on a larger scale after its degeneration to social imperialist path and later disintegration. Concealing that it had abandoned the socialist path long back, all the anti-communist forces led by the imperialists and their lackeys had then joined hands to unleash a furious attack on Marxism, shouting socialism has become obsolete. Similarly, for the sins of CPI(M), which has very little relation with Marxist values today, all the anti-communists, spearheaded by the Congress-led UDF, BJP, religious-caste leaders and reactionary intellectuals, have joined hands to attack Marxism, using TPs murder as a cover. As those who claims to uphold his legacy, like the Left Coordination Committee (LCC) did not recognize the consequences of these attacks on Marxism by the rightist forces, two mistakes were committed. On the one hand, the platform for condemning the murder of TP was allowed to be utilized by anti-communists, UDF leaders and petty bourgeois opportunists who used the opportunity to attack Marxism in the name of attacking CPI(M). On the other hand, it has reduced the attack on the degeneration of the CPI(M) merely to an attack on Vijayan, as if it will be saved if he is thrown out, as their organ: Janasakti gave title to its front article. Or, they refuse to go beyond what VS is ready to state, even after TPs murder. Both these approaches have weakened the ideological attack needed to be waged against CPI (M) at this crucial juncture, to win over its cadres to Marxist positions from its criminalized, bureaucratic and social democratic positions, so that a left alternative which is capable of fighting against the neo-liberal onslaught with a peoples democratic outlook can be built up. It is in this situation, severely condemning the brutal murder of TP and CPI(M)s role in it, the CPI(ML) has organized a statewide political campaign against the criminalization of politics in the state, reducing the state to one of the worst examples of neo-colonization, with communal, caste, mafia forces dominating the socio-cultural-political scene. It has analyzed the transformation of CPI(M) in to criminal, bureaucratic organization as a result of its degeneration to social democratic positions. While focusing the attack on CPI(M) for this murder, it has launched a powerful campaign against all anti-communist forces who are using this incident as a cover to attack Marxism. It has called on all genuine communist forces to struggle against the right opportunist positions of the CPI(M) led forces and petty bourgeois sectarian tendencies who easily becomes prey to the forces of reaction, and to join hands to build a revolutionary left alternative.

Taking pride in murder

THE HINDU

The past has a way of creeping up on the present. All the forgotten political murders in Kerala have now quite unexpectedly returned to public memory with the Idukki district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), M.M. Mani, claiming that his party systematically eliminated political rivals in the 1980s. Did Mr. Mani suffer from a sudden twinge of

conscience? Sadly, this was no guilt pang, but either a sickening boast or a defiant form of truthtelling. The district leader later sought to explain that his remarks made at a public meeting in Thodupuzha last week were in the context of the historic resistance put up by the party in difficult circumstances. With the CPI (M) continuing to feel the fall-out from the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T.P. Chandrasekharan earlier this month, Mr. Mani's revelations will certainly hurt deep. At a time when ongoing investigations into the T.P. murder have pointed to the involvement of activists of the CPI (M), his remarks have given the political opponents of the CPI (M) more ammunition. In effect, Mr. Mani seems to have implicated the whole party in the Idukki murders. Quite rightly, the police have registered a charge of murder against Mr. Mani, who had alluded to three killings: one shot, another beaten to death, and the third stabbed. From the manner of the murders, and the period, the victims have been identified as Congress workers Ancheri Baby, Mullanchira Mathai and Muttukad Nanappan. All the accused in the three cases were acquitted for want of evidence or witnesses. There is no legal bar on the reopening of these cases, and a thorough interrogation of Mr. Mani is essential for bringing out the truth behind these murders. All political formations in Kerala have suffered on account of the culture of political violence. The Left parties, the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have lost workers to petty political rivalry carried out in the name of ideological warfare. Often, one murder sets off a cycle of violence, with the suspect behind one killing becoming the victim of the next. But Mr. Mani's remarks have added a new dimension to the violence: he indicated the murders were part of a strategy, and involved those at the leadership level, not just rank-and-file party workers. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau has done well to condemn Mr. Mani's justification for what it describes as the retaliatory killing of political opponents. The party promises appropriate action. What it must do is ensure its members cooperate with the police so that the full truth about the murders emerges.

Self-destruct (M)
Indian express
Paul Zacharia: Fri May 25 2012, 02:59 hrs

The CPM in Kerala seems to be in the grip of an intense death-wish It is the Congress in Kerala that specialises in taking its own life when everything is going right for it. (Must be in the genes look at the UPA.) The CPM, on the other hand, is unsurpassed in its strategy of survive-and-flourish by any means. But the cold hand of history seems to have put the CPM too in the grip of a death-wish. The only other explanation would be that it is unconsciously conforming to Kerala's top-dog position in the suicide chart of India. The decadeold power struggle between state party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and former chief minister and present leader of the opposition V.S. Achuthanandan, which splintered the party monolith beyond repair, is at the core of the suicide phenomenon.

The CPM's history of driving Malayalis up the wall with notorious anti-people tactics like noku kooli or look-on-charge might have had the seed of the death-wish in it. For those unlearned in noku kooli, a brief summary will be enlightening. You are, say, moving house. The worker comrades demand a prodigious sum to load/unload; so you decide to do it yourself with help from friends. The comrades look on from a distance; when you're done, they ask to be paid the demanded wages. If you don't pay up, there is a bit of violence and you get hurt. The revolution in Kerala says the worker must be paid even if he doesn't work. That is a kind of workers' paradise even Marx did not anticipate. But the story of the undivided communist party's tryst with Kerala in the forties and fifties is another matter. The party was one of the prime movers of social change. It triggered progressive forces in literature, theatre, music and the arts. It revolutionised the feudal caste and class equations, gave negotiating power to agricultural and industrial workers, initiated land reforms and actually functioned as an agent of enlightenment. That is, till the Stalinist model was hoisted on the party and it became a power-hunting robot in the hands of gurus like EMS. With the split in 1964, the CPM's Stalinist transformation was complete. The thirst for power and money took over. Intellectuals, writers and artists, unable to bend to party diktats, quit en masse. The party shifted focus from the impoverished agricultural sector to the world of white-collared classes where unionisation and fund-collection were effortless. In return, it granted full protection to the corrupt and bestowed bounty on babus. The human face of communism was erased forever. Even the Congress appeared more human. Perhaps nowhere else is the fascist side of the Kerala CPM so evident as in the KannurThalasserry belt of north Malabar where a terrifyingly primitive sociology operates amongst the cadres. Killing and getting killed is routine. Godfathers rule with an iron hand. The police as well as public officials are terrorised into obedience. Many villages have been taken over by the party, labelled "party gramam" party village where only its diktat runs. It also happens that the Kerala CPM is controlled by the Kannur group. It is also well-known that VS has been, for his own reasons, challenging the Kannur lobby. His daring is interesting. Essentially, Achuthanandan is an undiluted Stalinist. But he doesn't employ Kannur's violent tactics. He is not even a street-fighter. He is a cunning media-strategist who brilliantly projects himself as a saviour of Kerala and the CPM. The irony is that he was put together as an icon by the Congress-supporting media to accelerate the war between him and the Kannur lobby led by Vijayan. Unlike in the case of Dr Frankenstein, the media's creation is proceeding to its targets shooting from the hip and is an indefatigable provider of titillating news based on empty gestures. The Kannur CPM has now been heavily implicated in the recent blood-curdling murder of T.P. Chandrasekharan, a dissident comrade who posed a major challenge to the party in that area. Party workers and some functionaries have been arrested. While Malayalis have learned to turn a cold eye on political murders, the brutal artistry of this particular butchery has jolted the public. After dismissing the murder as a non-event, Achuthanandan, sensing the public mood, deftly jumped on the bandwagon to carry forward his fight against the Kannur lobby by expressing sympathy for the murdered man, openly questioning the leadership of Vijayan and sending off a

much-publicised letter to CPM's central secretariat all sound and fury signifying nothing but his own agenda. The suicide process, however, got a big boost. It's Catch-22 for CPM's central leadership because they believe the demagogue in Achuthanandan is a great vote-catcher, but he will not be content with anything less than total control of the party in Kerala. To give the devil his due, Achuthanandan's entry into the murder scenario could help to ward off a strongly rumoured trade-off plan some elements in the ruling United Democratic Front are said to be hatching to save the decision-makers of the murder. Hell of a silver lining! The fact remains that the CPM's self-destruction, if that happens, is not a desirable development. Because despite all its excesses and decadence, the CPM has historically occupied a secular space, and a vacuum in that zone can turn deadly in the hands of communal predators. Brainwashed Marxist manpower has again and again proved to be a perfect haven for other and, more poisonous, brainwashers. Old habits die hard.