THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Death threats received by novelist S Harish - for his now-aborted serialised novel Meesha - is nothing new, said poet and anti-CPM crusader KC Umesh Babu. He told Express that when he spoke against CPM, gangs engaged by the party had tried to kill him several times.
“I would have been killed by the CPM quotation gang,” he told Express. Referring to the criminal case filed against journalist Venu Balakrishnan, he said all political movements with ideological moorings are intolerant, be it the BJP, the RSS or the CPM.“Let them critique Harish’s writing and his novel Meesha. But they have no right to say the novel should be discontinued. This is intolerance,” he added.
Umesh was the former state executive member of the CPM-affiliated Progressive Arts & Literary Organisation (Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham). He said CPM’s killer gangs targeted him as late as 2014. The then home minister Ramesh Chennithala had called him and asked him to avail of police security cover. But he refused to accept the offer.
Umesh said his ‘crime’ was to criticise the CPM on ideological issues. But as a political outfit, CPM fears open debates on ideology, hence it wants to silence those who oppose the party. “I am a victim of this indescribable hatred and intolerance of the CPM.”
Umesh said a senior leader of the CPM, who was close to him, called late night one day and told him he should do two things to avoid being attacked. One, he should not go to Onchiyam and speak against the CPM. And two, he should not appear on television channels for at least six months to attack the party. Umesh said he refused both the demand and the leader told him, “You are finished”.
He said the CPM tried to kill him several times, but he survived every attempt. He said after P Jayarajan assumed office as CPM Kannur district secretary, the possibility of attacks was high and he lived in fear.
“CPM men threw a tube light to my house. It was an attempt to hurt me. When the tube light breaks,
the mercury from it enters the bloodstream through the wound, which could be fatal. Luckily I was not hurt,” he said. Umesh had inaugurated the first public meeting of RMP at Onchiyam.