“Blessed are those who are able to die a natural death in Thalassery”, lamented the Kerala High Court a decade ago. Yet, the state-sponsored red terror of CPM continues unabated
Prerna Kumari
In no time on July 30, 2017 the media groups and offices of political parties across the nation were flooded with mayhem due to an RSS activist”s death. Rajesh Edavakode aged 34 was brutally murdered by a gang of people, believed to be linked with CPM, which was very skillfully concealed as personal enmity between two neighbors. A fine monsoon night in Kerala, Rajesh was just returning home to his family when he was ambushed by a gang of people who like wild dogs chased him on streets of Kerala and chopped off his hand like cannibals. Rajesh was taken to the nearest private hospital in pool of blood and several injuries. He took his last breath after one and a half hour of struggle between life and death.
Rajesh Edavakode was a law-abiding citizen of India, our Bharat, whose only fault was that he was working honestly for his organisation in Kerala and was firmly standing against the wrong. In an interview with a news channel, India Today, RSS?Sah-Sarkaryavah Shri Dattatreya Hosabale said, “Few days back Rajesh in his normal order of work went to a slum in Kerala trying to fulfill his organisation”s long pledged motive of spreading nationalistic ideology and unveiling the truth of the misleading parties who propagandise the needs of common man to their benefit. The BJP’s and CPM”s yet another negotiation meeting proposed that BJP shall take back the filed cases against CPM to promote peace in political circle of Kerala to which Rajesh opposed firmly it.” In light of these facts it seems that the communist party has opted a passive rigorous approach towards people whom they consider as threat and has decided to maintain law and order of the state on their own terms. This makes clear why the death sentence of Rajesh Edavakode was not declared by a judicial bench but by a political party.
In midst of this attempt of spreading national consciousness, workers of BJP and swayamsevaks are being butchered in broad day light in public streets. The political interference in administrative body in Kerala is so obvious and available for everyone to see when the police like mute spectators, watch the hired communists goons setting houses of Sangh-swayamsevaks ablaze and butchering them in the street. The police with open hands tamper evidence and manipulate the murders in name of personal enmity, claiming every political killing a problem of law and order. If the administration of the state is so unable to maintain law and order and the most of the murder victims according to them are coincidently just people relating to political background, it shows serious concern regarding the working of the ruling party of the state that is so incapable of maintaining the law and order. People in custody are the pets of communists who are willing to risk their life for dictatorial idea of a party that is just not willing to give up its pyromaniac attitude toward the state of Kerala. But will the culprits get their due is questionable, going by the past records.
In the murder case of Muhammed Fasal, the Kerala High Court observes “The Reality Of Kannur” and stated as under: “Blessed are those who are able to die a natural death in Thalassery.” Justice V Ramkumar of the Kerala High Court observed that the only solution to end the violence in Kannur District seemed to be a timely intervention by the Union Government by deploying sufficient forces that “will not yield to the political or plutocratic clout by those in powers and out of power”.
Justice V Ramkumar expressed the hope that there would be a “gubernatorial move to apprise the Central Government of the urgent need for a permanent prophylactic action to curb further bloodshed and killings in Kannur District where manslaughter is a competing sport.” The court made these observations while ordering an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the murder of Muhammed Fasal, a National Development Front (NDF) worker in Thalassery. The petitioner, Mariyu, alleged that her husband was murdered by Communist Party of India (Marxist) activists because he had defected to the NDF from the party. The court said that there had not been “any intelligent investigation” in the case.
The court observed that “All-party peace missions are nothing but a hoax to hoodwink the fickle-minded public.” The court observed that if reports were to be believed, Kannur District, particularly Thalassery, had, over the years, become “the hotbed of political violence and carnage of the worst order.” “All political parties there seem to freely indulge in the cult of violence,” he added, “Blessed are those who are able to die a natural death in Thalassery.”
He observed that the “Kerala Police was pandering to the vicious instincts of the influential politicians by shielding from punishment those who are really guilty and projecting either innocent persons listed out from party offices or arranging party confidants who volunteer to go to the dock and eventually to the prison houses at the party”s expense.”
The High Court justice went on “There were repeated instances of the people”s representatives with diabolical designs barging into police stations to rescue their own party criminals from the police lock ups.”
From the Judgment (Excerpts from the lamentation of Fasal”s widow):
……It is pertinent to note that the gruesome murder in this case took place in the constituency of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the present Home Minister. With a view to throw the investigating agency and the public off the scent the assailants had planted tridents (thrishuls) near the dead body so as to create an impression that members of the Rashtreeya Swayamsevak Sangh (“RSS” for short) were behind the murder of Fasal. Even though three CPM workers were taken into custody by the then investigating officer, after the sniffer dog had run in to the house of a CPM worker, those three persons were released from custody at the intervention of the leaders of the
CPM as revealed by Exts. P1 and P2 news items in two popular dailies………………….. The petitioner reasonably understands that that the murderers of her late husband are none other than the members of the CPM and she will not get justice since the CPM is in power and the Minister who is hailing from that Constituency is controlling the portfolio of Home…. (P3, 4)
| New Delhi: On August 9, people from different walks of life gathered at Jantar Mantar and protested against the brutal murder of SL Rajesh in Kerala. The independent intellectuals, academicians, artists and other people from all walks of life attended the demonstration. Reflecting the anger and agony of the civil society, the academic groups from the University of Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Indira Gandhi National Open University and others attended the demonstration in large numbers. The protesters alleged that the state govt. of Kerala has failed in its constitutional and moral obligations of protecting its own people. The participants demanded that different political ideologies must be given space to survive. “It has been observed that in the last 13 month of LDF rule in Kerala, 14 political murders have taken place. Four of the killed belonged to the Dalit community. All those people who were killed subscribed to a particular ideology i.e. the ideology of nationalism. The growing intolerance is a matter of serious concern. Kerala is emerging as a battleground of ideologies and political murders rather than a state abiding by the spirit of the Constitution of India,” a statement issued by the protesters stated. The artists, through songs and slogans, questioned the moral right and honesty of the self proclaimed liberals and intellectuals who observe a vow of silence over the brutal murder of Rajesh. The communist affiliated intellectuals who raise the bogey Dalit killings in other states are conspicuously silent on the issue of the murder of Rajesh, one of the participants said. The protest was also characterised by the live painting by a dozen of artists on the sidelines of the demonstration. They depicted the brutality of communist violence in Kerala on canvas. Convened by Prof Rakesh Sinha, the protest march was attended by many dignitaries such as Dr. Sonal Mansingh, Indian Classical Dancer, Vinay Saharabhudhe, vice-president BJP, Prafulla Ketkar, editor Organiser, Jyoti Shukla, chairperson State Finance Commission and many more were present in the protest march. — Organiser Bureau |
Most gruesome of all was the murder of Jayakrishnan, a teacher of mathematics at Primary School, vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was axed to death inside the classroom, in front of his terror-stricken students, on December 1, 1999. In the case of Jayakrishnan Master, A trial court sentenced five CPM men to death, the Kerala High court upheld it. The Supreme Court, which let four of them off for want of evidence on appeal later, observed that the investigation was slow because of political pressure. In the First Information Report nobody was named. Test identification parade was conducted after a long delay.
The bench said the investigation, for whatever reason, had not been conducted properly. The slipshod manner in which the investigation was carried out was amply borne out from the records.
The Bench said, “Despite the fact that a teacher in the classroom before the students of tender age had brutally been murdered, the police who reached the place of occurrence soon thereafter did not appear to have shown a very keen interest in the matter. This is a case where the children have shown a rare and strong courage, which their teachers have failed to show. It was expected that the teachers would speak out the truth but they did not.”
The current situation has forced a lot of questions to be brought in light. The question arises, “Have people of Kerala become so blind or is it the fear that communist party have spread across the state with their inhumane attitude towards hostility and change?
The political killings in Kerala are not uncommon and nor is the political influence of communist party on administration of Kerala. The number of cases and killings are nothing to be reminded of because this time it’s Rajesh, it could be anyone next time who wants to work in righteous ways.
In the God”s own Country, where the static number shows its supremacy in education, cleanliness, sanitation and health, the carnage is also on its peak and surprisingly mostly unnoticed. Meenakshi Lekhi was right in pointing out that Kerala is fast converting from ‘God’s Own Country’ to ‘God’s Forsaken Country’.
It”s not people killing people in Kerala. It’s the battle of two ideologies that has come to climax of the clash as it’s open to everyone to see how RSS and BJP oppose the parties who forget that they are not ruling but serving people of a state, a state belonging to a nation which has never accepted dictators in the past and will not tolerate emerging dictators in skin of politics in future too.
(The writer is an advocate practising at Supreme Court of India)
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