It’s said that the care of human life and happiness is the first objective of good governance. But P P Divya, former president of Kannur panchayat, seemed to have forgotten the tenet when she publicly criticised Additional District Magistrate Naveen Babu at his farewell function, suggesting that he was corrupt. Babu was found hanging at his official residence the next day. Two days later, the police registered a case of abetting suicide against Divya, an emerging woman leader in CPI(M). Then, hours after a principal sessions court rejected her anticipatory bail application, Divya surrendered before the police.
The court tore into Divya’s arguments. It observed she had intended “to humiliate and insult the deceased in the presence of his superior and subordinates”. It pointed out that Divya had attended the function uninvited, invited media people, and got her speech circulated even in Pathanamthitta, Babu’s home town. It observed that if she had any information about corruption, she should have approached the vigilance department or police—which she did not.
The ruling party’s district leadership in Kannur had initially tried to defend Divya, saying what she mentioned at the send-off was “well-intentioned”. But after she was denied bail, the party directed her to surrender. Importantly, the CPI(M) district leadership in Pathanamthitta always stood with Babu’s family and distanced themselves from the party’s approach in Kannur. Even the general sentiment within the CPI(M) was against the “Kannur party”, which has always had an upper hand in the intra-party power structure.
Divya has said she will prove her innocence. She may eventually be able to do it, but the problem would not end there. In fact, Divya is not the problem—she is a symptom of a deep malaise that is especially visible in the party’s Kannur brand of politics, smacking of high-handedness and grandstanding.
Even while accepting that Kannur’s politics has its own distinct history, and has always been bloody and rebellious, there is a time and place for everything. It’s high time the politicians from Kannur, especially those in the CPI(M), accept that violence—physical and emotional—is totally unacceptable in a democratic society. It’s time to move on, Kannur comrades; otherwise, you might find your space shrinking in the modern political milieu.