Shadow of Authoritarianism Over Kerala

Kerala Governor P Sathasivam’s extraordinary act of “summoning” the Chief Minister after the murder of an RSS karyavahak has raised eye-brows in the State. The police had acted swiftly to arrest the accused in the case within 12 hours after the murder, but the Governor chose to “summon” the Chief Minister to know about the action taken by State government on the law and order issues in Thiruvananthapuram.

The act of the Governor, appointed by the BJP-led central government in 2014, is seen in the light of the RSS demand – raised in January this year and again in March – to dismiss the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala. In May this year, the BJP had even demanded the imposition of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kannur.

Rajesh, a karyavahak of the RSS at Sreekaryam, Thiruvananthapuram was murdered on the night of Saturday, 29 July. Rajesh revealed the details about his killers in his death bed, and nine suspects have been arrested in the case so far, including five who allegedly took part in the crime directly. The police has said that personal rivalry is suspected to be among the motives behind the murder.

Manikuttan, one of the main accused, is reportedly accused in 18 criminal cases, including acts of political violence allegedly committed for the Congress party. He had been slapped with a case under the Kerala Anti-social Activities Prevention (Act) in 2008, when the LDF was leading the government. He is also an accused in a case of throwing bombs at the house of CPI(M) Area Committee member LS Saju. Vishnu, another accused, is also an active member of the RSS.

There had been widespread violence by the RSS-BJP in the capital district in the past week, which culminated in a series of attacks by RSS activists on the houses of Left leaders. There were attacks on the house where Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the CPI(M) Kerala Secretary lives in Thiruvananthapuram, and on the house of Kattakkada Sasi, the CITU Kerala Secretary. The houses of two CPI(M) Thiruvananthapuram District committee members and those of two Municipal Councillors of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation were also attacked. One of the Municipal Councillors whose house was attacked chased the attackers who ended up going into the BJP State Committee office, following which there was stone-pelting from inside the office premises and back.

The Governor’s act comes in the backdrop of the persistent RSS demand to dismiss the Kerala government and has come under severe criticism by political observers.

Dr. KP Aravindan, Former President of the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) and ICMR Emeritus Scientist at Government Medical College, Calicut recalled in his Facebook post the judgment co-authored by Sathasivam in the murder case of Graham Staines and his two young sons when he was a judge in the Supreme Court. The judgement said, “In the case on hand, even though Graham Staines and his minor sons were burnt to death while they were sleeping inside a station wagon at Manoharpur, the intention was to teach a lesson to Graham Staines about his religious activities, namely converting poor tribals to Christianity. All these aspects have been correctly appreciated by the High Court and modified the sentence of death into life imprisonment with which we concur.”

“The lines he wrote in the judgment reveal which side he is on. We are forced to remember all these when the Governor acts to help those who kill even their own activists to foment riots”, Aravindan wrote.

A number of incidents had come to light in the recent months where RSS activists and those who left the RSS were killed and the accused turned out to be RSS activists themselves. Nirmal, a worker of RSS’s youth wing Yuva Morcha, had been killed in Thrissur in February this year, and the accused in the case included a BJP worker. The BJP was caught on the backfoot when this came to light, as it had observed a hartal in Thrissur district accusing the CPI(M) of being behind the murder.

Later in April, ten RSS men were arrested for the murder of 17-year old Ananthu, a former RSS worker, after he distanced himself from the Hindutva outfit.

The BJP called for a hartal on Sunday, 30 July, and the Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala sat on a hunger strike in response to the events. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the CPI(M) State Secretary, came down heavily on Chennithala. “This Chennithala was earlier the Home Minister in Kerala. BJP workers had killed 27 CPI(M) activists during the time when Oommen Chandy was the Chief Minister. But he did not think of foregoing even a meal, forget going on hunger strike for a day”,

Ramesh Chennithala has often been accused of taking a soft stand when it comes to the RSS. “Anyway, it would be good for his health to sit on hunger strike for a day. I wish him all the best”, Kodiyeri said.

BJP’s hartal was marred by violence in several places. In Sultan Bathery, RSS and Hindi Aikya Vedi workers barged into houses and assaulted people including women and children. After the victims were taken by the police to the Bathery Taluk hospital, the RSS workers followed the injured into the hospital and beat them up again. Offices of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) in Kottayam were damaged in attacks by RSS-BJP workers.