After Assault on Mayor, RSS Attacks CPI(M) District Office in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

RSS workers attacked the Thiruvananthapuram District Committee office of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday night.

The incident took place a day after another attack at the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation which left the City Mayor V K Prasanth and four councillors injured. Alleged RSS workers who came from outside attacked the Mayor and four councillors in the midst of a ruckus created by BJP councillors during a discussion on the installation of high-mast lights in the state capital on Saturday.

After the unruly incidents following the Corporation council meeting, BJP and RSS workers went on a spree of attacks in the capital city.

On Sunday night, as a BJP procession from Valiyasala to Mettukada passed by the CPI(M)’s District Committee office, a group of RSS workers pelted stones at the office. Mohan, a son of a BJP councillor, was allegedly in the forefront of the attacks.

In the attack, the glass casings of the statue of P Krishna Pillai, one of the founding leaders of communist movement in the state, and the office’s window panes were damaged.

Seven RSS-BJP activists have been taken into police custody so far in connection with the incident which occurred at 8 pm on Sunday night.

“The designs of the BJP and the RSS to whip up tension in the region have been evident during the last few days. Only a few days ago the reception unit for the Vanchiyoor area committee conference had come under attack,” said Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran, who visited the office to take stock of the situation.

Meanwhile at Karikkakom, also in Thiruvananthapuram district, three CPI(M) activists were injured in an attack by RSS workers and had to be hospitalised. The CPI(M) activists were returning after a demonstration held to protest the attack on the Mayor.

City Mayor VK Prasanth, from the CPI(M), is widely seen as an immensely popular leader, having won more than two-thirds of the votes in his ward. “At the time of the Corporation polls, Prasanth’s popularity was mostly confined to his ward and the surrounding region. His work as Mayor has led to his acceptance across the city registering an impressive rise, which has the BJP worried. It seems that this is the reason why the BJP workers surrounded the Mayor and beat him up,” wrote journalist and political commentator TC Rajesh.

Earlier on Sunday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visited the mayor who is under treatment at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College. He said that the attack by the RSS on mayor Prasanth was a well-planned one.

"The attack was deliberate and without any provocation," the Chief Minister said in a Facebook post.

CPI(M) state general secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said on Monday that the RSS is trying to terrorise the state by unleashing a series of attacks. The attack against the Mayor is barbaric; it is an act which throws to the wind all democratic norms and civic sense, he said