Politics of the absurd: Flex war reopens old wounds in Kannur 

Installed at every possible public space, the flexes put up by the CPM and Congress stare at the people as if to remind them of the cursed age in which they are forced to live in.
Flex board displaying gory photographs of slain Youth Congress worker Shuhaib in Kannur | EPS
Flex board displaying gory photographs of slain Youth Congress worker Shuhaib in Kannur | EPS

KANNUR: Demanding justice for her daughter who was raped and murdered, a distraught Frances McDormand set up billboards to call attention to the unsolved case. The stellar role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri earned her the Oscar award for best actress on Sunday. Closer home, a similar attempt is having the opposite effect, reopening old wounds and stoking ire in Kannur.It all started with the murder of Youth Congress leader S L Shuhaib, who was allegedly hacked by CPM workers in Mattannur on February 12. In what some see as a bid to cash in on the public outrage, the Congress put up flexes and billboards displaying gory photographs of the crime.

Once it recovered from the initial embarrassment, the CPM hit back with all its firepower by setting up huge flexes and boards of martyrs, especially from the minority community, and photographs not yet published anywhere were displayed much to the shock of the general public.The unpublished photographs of hacked bodies and chopped limbs were blown up into large billboards.Installed at every possible public space, including bus stops, near schools and colleges, the flexes put up by the CPM and Congress stare at the people as if to remind them of the cursed age in which they are forced to live in.

“This is absurd,” fumes poet and social activist K C Umesh Babu. “This is politics of the absurd. One can understand the outrage of the followers of a party when one of their colleagues is killed. But, what we are witnessing here is a mad counter attack by the CPM, by digging up forgotten martyrs from the graves and displaying them with uncontrollable fury. Some of them were killed 15 years ago. Bringing back the memory of such unfortunate murders and flaming up the passions of party workers is insane. This is ridiculous. 

They are trying to prove who is right by parading mutilated bodies before the public.”
The flex war was also condemned by Gandhian activist K P A Raheem. “This will give a wrong picture about Kannur to the people outside. You cannot use a public place to disturb the public conscience. A responsible political party should not do things like this. The impact of such pictures on the minds of small children will be huge,” he warns.

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