KANNUR: After a long period of relative calm, verbal violence unleashed by political leaders has started to threaten the tenuous peace prevailing in the Kannur district, which is notorious for political violence.
The immediate provocation was the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s (BJYM) reaction to a remark made by Speaker AN Shameer, who is also the CPM MLA from Thalassery, on the Union government presenting Hindu gods and mythology as scientific truth. BJYM leader K Ganesh reminded Shamseer about the incident in which the hand of T J Joseph was chopped off for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad.
The issue was aggravated with CPM state committee member P Jayarajan joining it, saying “The place of Yuva Morcha activists who target Shamseer will be in mortuary”. Jayarajan himself was the victim of political violence and was allegedly the mastermind behind several violent incidents in Kannur. Soon, BJP leader Sandeep Varrier, in a Facebook post, reminded Jayarajan about the attack mounted on him on Thiruvonam day in 1999.
The issue refused to subside with leaders continuing the belligerent posture on Friday, too. P Jayarajan said in a Facebook post that he used aggressive language because the BJP can understand only such language. LDF convenor and CPM central committee member E P Jayarajan came forward to defend his party comrades, P Jayarajan and Shamseer.
At the same time, provocative slogans were raised against Jayarajan and Shamseer by BJP workers at Palloor near Mahe on Friday. Kannur has a shameful history of party leaders indulging in inflammatory speeches to satisfy the violent mood of the cadre.
‘Unnecessary problems being created in kannur’
These range from a leader’s statement that he would welcome party workers with flowers if they come with the chopped body parts of CPM men to the declaration that bombs will be made inside the police stations if needed.
Before a controversial attack, a political party had asserted that it will demolish the ‘transformer’ itself instead of the usual practice of targeting individual electric bulbs.
Observers feel that there are more things than what meets the eye behind the sudden spurt of violent outbursts.
“This is a ploy of CPM to divert the attention from the sympathy wave created by the death of Oommen Chandy. The CPM leaders are left with disbelief and astonishment over the unprecedented support received during Oommen Chandy’s funeral’, said poet and cultural activist K C Umesh Babu.
“Whenever the party feels it is on the back foot, it always creates diversions through vitriolic statements or through some acts of violence,” he said.
“This is a ridiculous and frustrating attempt of two leaders who have lost their prominence in their parties. You take the case of both P Jayarajan and Sandeep Varrier. They want to come back to the positions they were in before,” said Shaji Pandyala, a political observer.
“Jayarajan wants to come back to lead the party in the district. For this, he has made Shamseer a tool. But the problem is that the cadre would get excited and would start acting accordingly. These people are unnecessarily creating problems in Kannur, as people lead a comparatively peaceful life now,” he said.