The label of ‘God’s Own Country’ is not quite sticking to Kerala these days. It now holds the dubious distinction of recording the highest number of murders due to political reasons across all parties.
Since the year 2000, 172 political murders (65 RSS/BJP, 85 CPM, 11 Congress, 11 IUML) have taken place—most of them executed horribly. Kannur, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s district, remains the main battle ground of brutal clashes.
The CPM and RSS would make you believe that they are fighting for their ideologies—CPM to establish an egalitarian society, and RSS to build a nationalist state. This is absurd. The CPM lost its Marxist pretensions the day it decided to contest elections, and the RSS its ultra-nationalist agenda when it decided to go for a wider support base, with all guns blazing.
The fight between the two is essentially for political power and between two unequal contenders.
The CPM has a huge cadre base and has been in power for over a decade, while the RSS has a handful of active volunteers. The emphasis of the RSS is on channelising the anger and frustration of Hindus, who feel cheated of their religious, political, economic and social rights to take on the CPM’s might.
The CPM and the Congress, on the other hand, play their politics around the percentage of voters from different communities and use that to their electoral advantage. So far, this strategy has worked for them effectively and power has kept alternating between the LDF and UDF, led respectively by the CPM and the Congress.
Given this ground reality, the RSS seems to have chosen a self-destructive path and its ambition to displace Marxists appears unrealistic. Maybe, it believes that Goliaths can also be felled and constraints of numbers and arrogance of power can be overcome. Its recent performance in the state and local body elections in West Bengal and Kerala despite violence and intimidation has evidently reinforced its belief in its programmes and objectives.
The instinct of ruling by violence is not alien to the Communists. During China’s Cultural Revolution’ (from 1966 until 1976), Mao Zedong created Red Guards to execute over seven million people to re-stamp his authority over the governance and wipe out his detractors. Joseph Stalin of the erstwhile Soviet Union hanged and sent over 3.3 million soviets to die in the endless wastes of Gulag to strengthen his political power. In 1967, Kanu Sanyal and Charu Mazumdar, leaders of the peasant movement in Naxalbari, West Bengal, used violence and murders to achieve their objective. Beijing exhorted and supported them to kill opponents, which it claimed was justified by the ideology of Marxism, as practiced in China. For the next 10 years, it was a complete mayhem in West Bengal.
The choice for Vijayan is either to follow Mao and let his comrades hack opponents to death, or discipline them. The argument that the RSS attacks first and his men only retaliate is self-deceiving.
Being the Chief Minister, it is his responsibility to enforce peace without taking sides. For him, the best way to fight the RSS would be to engage its leaders in public discourse and highlight the dangers of its ideology to India’s integrity. Letting his goons cut limbs of RSS activists and march on streets baying for their blood would convince no one of his moral legitimacy to govern. He must also realise that pettiness in politics does not benefit in the long run. If he punishes the school management for letting Mohan Bhagwat fly the national flag on India’s Independence Day, it will only help the RSS dig its heel deeper.
It is time Vijayan looked beyond the electoral expediency. The IS factor in interfaith marriages, SIMI’s terror activities and recruitment of misguided Muslim youths for IS operations are disquieting signals. These cannot be brushed under the carpet as isolated cases. He must encourage the police to remain extra vigilant, act without any prejudice and extend assistance to the NIA in investigating the IS footprints. He may lose some votes, but Kerala’s future will be secure.
He must understand that hostile agencies take years to plan and subvert the populace so that when the time is ripe, they can strike decisively. The recent cases of IS thrust are a manifestation of years of planning by IS/ISI, which the governments in the past either ignored or tolerated. He cannot afford to do either. The political violence and IS activities have to be dealt with as a matter of faith and not with an eye on votes. Blaming the Centre, RSS and NIA or projecting himself as a victim will not help Vijayan’s credibility as a leader. He is lucky to rule a state endowed with an abundance of nature’s gift. Let it not be turned in a killing field.
Amar Bhushan
Former special secretary, Research and Analysis Wing
amarbhushan@hotmail.com