THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Pinarayi Government’s affidavit terming Naxal Varghese ‘a notorious criminal who tried to attack the police’ and the ‘leader of a Naxalite gang involved in several murder and dacoity cases’ is sure to kick up a political storm within the Left. The dust raised within the Left Front over the encounter killing of two Maoists in Nilambur last November hasn’t settled.
The CPI leadership has been irked by the new development, though the party leadership hasn’t made any open statement yet. The party likes to believe that the affidavit, filed last July, could have been prepared during the previous UDF government’s time. “It’s different from the Left view. We’ll have to look into what went wrong before making a statement,” said a senior leader.
Meanwhile, the CPI (ML) Red Flag urged the government to immediately correct its stance. Expressing strong protest over the Left government terming Varghese a criminal, its central committee member Charles George said, “the government should take corrective steps. We’ll write to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM central committee in this regard.”
Immediately after the encounter killings at Nilambur, the CPI state leadership had come down heavily on the incident. Later, CPM politburo member M A Baby had also termed the killings unfortunate.
CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran had said that Kerala, unlike other states, should not go hunting for Naxals. Being a Left front, the government should look into the concerns raised for the tribals. No one should gun down those who express their opinion. That’s not the Left way of approach, he said.