Aboobakar

NADAPURAM in Kozhikode district of Kerala is not an unusually sensitive area. Occasionally, there have been minor clashes between groups in the area. The communist movement is very strong here because of the great struggles the party had organised and led to success in this eastern mid-land region of Kozhikode. The losers in these struggles even today cherish the memory of their landlordism, with all its hooliganism. They don’t miss whenever they get a chance to condemn the communist movement as a whole and the CPI(M) in particular.

The area has a mix of all religious denominations. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) is an important political force in the region. Whenever the Communist Party of India (Marxist) took up issues affecting the rich Muslim exploiters and expropriators, the IUML came forward to protect their interests. On its part, the CPI(M) always stood by the people, sharing the sentiments and aspirations of the rural poor. It helped the peasantry to gradually become an organised and politically conscious force in the locality. Thus a new awareness swept the region. The peasants are no longer the slaves of anybody. In the past, IUML leaders always described the CPI(M)’s struggles as anti-Muslim even though the CPI(M) never went by the religious affiliations of the exploiters or the exploited whenever it launched a struggle.

The masses rallied behind the IUML in the area are gradually shedding their extreme anti-communist bias for well-known reasons. When the CPI(M) asked for a positive response in the last local bodies elections in Kerala, that took place in the background of assaults perpetrated against the minorities by the Sangh Parivar and of the utter apathy on part of the Congress(I) in the matter, the leaders and ranks of the IUML in Nadapuram responded very positively. While the IUML leadership remained in the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and even went in for an alliance between the BJP and UDF on the old Beypore-Badagara model, the pro-IUML masses felt very sad about it. A considerable section of them therefore stood by the Left Democratic Front (LDF).

As a result, when the nearby Tellicherry and Panur were burning due to the bomb culture initiated by the Sangh Parivar, Nadapuram remained peaceful and calm. The Muslims of the area are fully aware that the CPI(M) is facing a succession of fatal attacks launched by the RSS for the sake of the working class and the minorities.

Naturally, for the UDF leadership, it was a worrying sign, to be reckoned with. Precisely at a time when fresh elections to the state assembly are on the anvil, the UDF leaders find an erosion in their mass following. They are therefore trying to find a way to come to power, even if they have to seek the help of the BJP, though even the BJP support may not help them gain power in the state. The UDF and BJP both want to prevent a situation like this. But the methods they are adopting are most alarming, and most disillusioning for anybody who had illusions about these parties having any qualm of conscience.

The recent incidents in Nadapuram area must be viewed in this background.

At about 4.30 on January 13 evening, IUML men shot dead Comrade Santhosh, an activist of the CPI(M) and DYFI. The incident came on top of continued harassment of CPI(M) workers by IUML men, without any provocation, at Chekkiad in Nadapuram area. Political leaders of the area were already trying to re-establish peace and harmony in the region. A peace meeting was also scheduled for Saturday, January 13, but it did not materialise due to the continuous attacks on CPI(M) workers and due to the non-participation of the IUML in the meeting.

The CPI(M) cadres were hitherto tolerating all such attacks for the sake of peace. The politically conscious party sympathisers too did not want any breach in peace in the area. They correctly apprehended that communal elements would soon penetrate the area if such a breach took place, and that this would lead to untoward incidents whose absence in Kerala has always been hailed by politicians and men of wisdom. But the cold-blooded assassination of Comrade Santhosh was something even the most composed party worker could not tolerate. There were clashes in the area in which workers of both the CPI(M) and IUML received injuries. The incidents culminated in the death of an IUML worker at Chekkiad. The saddest casualty of the political vendetta of right-reactionary communal forces was little Neetu (5), a darling of her family, who died in a bomb attack.

The CPI(M) leaders called upon the party cadres to maintain peace in the area. Pinarayi Vijayan was the first leader of any political party to visit the area and appeal to the people for peace and harmony. Vijayan visited not only Comrade Santhosh’s house to condole his death, but also the house of the IUML’s Moideen Hajee who fell victim at Chekkiad.

Vijayan's gesture was welcomed by peace-loving sections of all parties in the area. He cautioned the people about the elements who want to destroy peace and communal harmony, and urged all parties to cooperate in the attempts to re-establish peace. He said common people like to live in peace; it is some elements in the right-reactionary parties who are trying to take advantage of the unwanted situation and to malign the secular and democratic forces. The incidents in Nadapuram are the result of the game being played by these very elements. Hence the need to be cautious of them. He asked the CPI(M) workers to remain vigilant of the BJP and NDA which are trying to fish in the troubled waters. He also urged the democratic parties to rise to the occasion.

Following Vijayan’s visit and heart-touching appeal, CPI(M) workers rose to one man to work steadily, with a sense of sacrifice, towards restoring peace in the area. Peace is gradually returning to the locality due to the efforts of the police, administration and political leaders. The UDF leadership in the area, for the time being, seems to have realised the danger of coalescing with the communal forces.

Nadapuram is an object lesson for the secular and democratic forces of the country as a whole and of Kerala in particular. People are more and more realising what dangerous weapons there are in the arsenal of the communal forces and the right-reactionary political conglomerations.