Kannur syndrome, unlike the Stockholm Syndrome, is yet to enter a dictionary, probably because it occurs too infrequently to fall under the lens of lexicographers. On the eve of Karl Marx’s 193rd birth anniversary, T P Chandrasekharan, a former comrade with enough clout to form a breakaway faction called Revolutionary Marxist Party and rout the CPI(M) in Onchiyam panchayat, near Kozhikode, once the rock-bed of Marxists, was brutally hacked to death by contract killers who allegedly came in from Kannur.
Chandrasekharan had made no secret of the fact that he was a marked man. State authorities, including the chief minister knew this and yet nothing was done to protect a life. While the ruling dispensation was quick to point fingers at the CPI(M), the comrades claimed it was an attempt to tarnish them ahead of the Neyyattinkara bypolls. The police claim to have leads and hopefully the murder plot will soon get unravelled.
No civil society can afford to remain mute spectator to such dastardly deeds, committed in the name of politics. The murder that took place on Friday night at Vallikkad, in Kozhikode district, went beyond the definition of political vendetta. It reeked of a ritualistic execution from the medieval times, complete with betrayal and deceit. Unlike political murders in the past when the victims were mostly stabbed, this time it was an execution, using an axe. Chandrasekharan’s face was completely mutilated, one ignominy that was never committed in the past. Blame it on contract killers but the message that has gone out to those who have dumped the CPI(M), both on ideological grounds and in search of greener pastures, is quite chilling. If this murder plot gets in any way linked to the party, it would clearly paint a sorry picture of a party that is fast running out of ideas when faced with mutiny in the ranks.