KOCHI: Talking to reporters on Saturday about the secret pact between the Sangh Parivar and the Congress in Thalassery for the assembly elections, CPM Kannur district secretary MV Jayarajan said the RSS’ animosity towards his party has a long history that dates back to the communal riot in the area in 1971.
Laying down the life of a cadre to protect the Muslims in Thalassery from the Sangh Parivar attack has been CPM’s favourite narrative whenever there is a discussion on the party’s relationship with the minority community. Party workers would talk enthusiastically about UK Kunhiraman ‘who sacrificed his life’ to protect the mosque in Meruvambai near Koothuparamba during the riots.
This is 50th year of the riot. But it continues to add fire to the political deliberations in Malabar. “The incident was a decisive moment in the history of the CPM in Kannur because you could see the genesis of the CPM-RSS rivalry in the riot,” said Dr A Valsalan, who wrote the book Thalassery Kalapam: Nerum Nunayum (Thalassery Riot: Truth and Lies).According to Valsalan, the riot was the result of the Sangh Parivar’s conspiracy to weaken the working class movement in Malabar, especially in Thalassery. “This was the strategy they resorted to in Mumbai to destroy the labour movement through outfits like the Jan Sangh and Shiv Sena,” he said.
Clashes erupted after rumours spread that slippers were thrown from the first floor of the Noorjahan hotel in Thalassery at a religious procession taken to the Melutt Madappura.“The Justice Vithayathil Commission that was constituted to conduct an inquiry found out that such an incident never took place,” Dr Valsalan said.“The RSS game plan did not materialise because of the active intervention of the CPM leaders including AKG (A K Gopalan), C H Kanaran and Pinarayi Vijayan. Even before the riot, squads were formed under Pinarayi’s leadership to resist the RSS attacks. Pinarayi was falsely implicated in a murder case as a retaliation by the RSS,” he said.But the RSS dismisses CPM’s claims saying the entire narrative is fabricated.
“The Vithayathil Commission report has carried the number of the cases and the names of the accused in the riot. You can see that the majority of the accused were CPM workers,” said V Sasidharan, RSS vibhag saha karyavahak.“RSS had a minimal presence in Thalassery and adjoining areas then. Major incidents of violence took place in the CPM-dominated areas. The mosque at Parapram in Pinarayi, a CPM stronghold, was destroyed in three days,” he said. The CPI and the Muslim leaders had deposed before the Commission about CPM’s role in the riot. “The CPI had come up with a notice detailing the complicity of the CPM in the riot,” he said.“It’s a lie that Kuhiraman was killed while protecting the Meruvambai mosque. He was killed in a tussle at a toddy shop,” Sasidharan said.