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The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala finds itself on the defensive following the twin murders of Youth Congress activists in Kasaragode district on Sunday night, which is said to be a culmination of a series of violent incidents featuring the two parties.
The First Information Report (FIR) filed by the police mentions that the CPI(M) saw Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan go into a huddle with the State party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan for about an hour on Monday.
Police on the hunt
The Chief Minister cancelled his public engagements while Balakrishnan, who met newspersons later at the party headquarters, condemned the killings in the ‘strongest words’ possible.
While refusing to make any guesses on perpetrators of the dastardly incident, Balakrishnan said it had worked to the advantage of the party’s political detractors in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
The timing could not have been worse as the party had already put itself on the poll campaign mode. Balakrishnan wondered if a committed party worker would orchestrate or execute such a heinous crime during such an interlude.
Yatra put off for a day
“The killings occurred on the very day the National Democratic Front (NDF) held a march in Kasaragode. But if the police accuse any CPI(M) worker of the murder, the party will expel him from its ranks,” he said.
Balakrishnan offered no sanctuary for criminals in the party. But it would also not go so fas as to blame itself for every political killing being reported in the state. It would conduct its own enquiry into the Kasaragode killings.
Even as the Chief Minister called off his public engagements, the CPI(M) put off by a day its ‘Kerala Samrakshana Yatra’ that it is undertaking in the poll campaign mode.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court has registered a case on its own against the Youth Congress for giving a call for a ‘flash hartal’ on Monday to protest the killings of its cadre in Kasaragode.
The court observed the day-to-dawn hartal was ‘direct challenge’ to its recent order banning such impromptu shutdowns, inconveniencing the public. It has sought a detailed report from the State Government.
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