In yet another controversy highlighting the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s ambiguous stance on national issues, K.P. Sheeba, CPM leader and President of the Kakkodi Panchayat in Kozhikode, sparked outrage with a Facebook post on 7 May 2025 seen as sympathetic to Pakistan. She wrote: “Deshathirthikalkkumappuram manushyaraanu”, meaning ‘people across the border are human beings too; they do have grief and sentiments’. As soon as the post became controversial, Sheeba, a close associate of senior CPM leaders, deleted it. Her picture with the state Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, speaks volumes about her proximity to the party echelons.
Sheeba’s post is not a bolt from the blue for the people of Kerala, because her party leaders’ reactions to the Pahalgam killings were full of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’. CPM General Secretary M.A. Baby had said the BJP had been claiming that its steps to revoke Article 370, divide the state, and remove the special status of Jammu and Kashmir had borne fruit in bringing peace to the Valley. The CPM State Secretary lost his temper when journalists asked him about the presence of several ‘Pakistan junctions’ and a ‘Jinnah Road’ in Kerala. He said these sorts of discussions are aimed at ‘dividing society’. Right-thinking people wonder how it divides the people—when the matter concerns an enemy country, how does it divide the people of Bharat?
Similarly, although the mortal remains of N. Ramachandran, the Pahalgam martyr, were brought to Kochi on 24 April and the body was laid in Kochi for public viewing before being consigned to the flames on 25 April, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visited the family members of N. Ramachandran only on 27 May. He had to face several social media attacks for not visiting the families of the deceased earlier.
Operation Sindoor, launched by India on 7 May, is a direct response to the Pahalgam massacre, which claimed 26 lives. Currently, Pakistan is targeting the entire western border with missiles and drones, though our forces are successfully neutralising them and retaliating with severe aggression to dismantle terrorist infrastructure and its supporters in military uniform.
