People's Democracy

KERALA

Resist the Heinous Conspiracy Unitedly

Below we publish the statement issued by the CPI(M)’s  Kerala state secretariat on May 15, 2012.

THE Kerala state secretariat of the CPI(M) appeals to the CPI(M) activists and masses for whom the Party is precious than their life, to be vigilant against onslaughts intended to disrupt the Party. Venomous, erroneous campaigns unleashed against the Party are part of a conspiracy that is hatched against the CPI(M) which is kept by lakhs of workers, peasants and other masses close to their hearts. This is the right moment that the Party workers and its well-wishers come forward vigilantly, as on earlier occasions when they had surged forward to protect the Party in critical junctures. Party workers and sympathisers have to come out unitedly to expose and resist the vicious campaigns unleashed incessantly by the UDF, other anti-Communists and a section of the media.

The present attack against the LDF and the CPI(M), the major party of the front, is unleashed in a unique situation. The UDF government is facing a deep crisis today. Their rule for a year has made the people of Kerala absolutely discontented. A steep price rise has made the lives of the poor unbearable. Rationing and public distribution systems were completely disrupted. Severe cut in kerosene distribution has landed the fishermen in coastal areas in a deep crisis. Black market price of one litre of kerosene is Rs 100 and it makes the fishing impossible by purchasing kerosene at this price. Load shedding and power cut have made all families extremely angry. In addition, increase in power tariff rate has also been announced. Power cut has landed the industrial sector of the state in a big crisis. All are reminded of the days of reign of the LDF government. Not even one project announced by chief minister Oommen Chandy has been started till date.

Repeated price increases of petrol and diesel by the central government led by the Congress has inflicted a huge economic burden on the people. It has made price rise more severe.

Moreover, severe discontent was growing in the Congress party and the UDF constituents against chief minister Oommen Chandy who succumbed before the pressures of the Muslim League which ultimately resulted in an embarrassment to the whole state. Some Congress leaders openly reacted against this. Awarding the fifth ministership to Muslim League has caused damage to the secular foundation of the state. Portfolios were distributed again on the basis of caste and community of ministers. Caste organisations supporting the UDF came out openly opposing this step. The face of the UDF has got more tarnished due to these developments.

Selvaraj was influenced to resign his legislature membership by luring him with money and promises. The decision of the UDF to make the defector as its candidate in the bye-election has created big anguish among the voters of Neyyattinkara constituency. Oommen Chandy led UDF was in quandary as they are compelled to carry the very same person who had earlier announced that it would be better to commit suicide than to join UDF.

Differences have erupted in the state cabinet over the Mullaperiyar issue. While the Congress and the chief minister justify the Expert Committee Report, ministers K M Mani and P J Joseph belonging to Kerala Congress are opposing it. The popular anger unleashed all over the state against the UDF government and the central government for adopting a stand protecting the Italian Navy men who murdered fishermen at sea by shooting them, is not small. That the Supreme Court had to ask the government whether they have forgotten the fact that Italian Navy men had shot down Indian citizens is an obvious evidence of their treacherous game. UDF is facing a very severe challenge presently.

It is in this background that the conspiracy against the CPI(M) emerges. It will not be wrong to suspect that the dastardly murder of T P Chandrasekharan was part of this conspiracy. The undue haste shown by the ministers and the Congress leaders, immediately after the murder by accusing the CPI(M) for the murder, increases this suspicion.

This horrendous murder is despicable, mean and pathetic. The state secretariat condemned this murder and expressed deep protest of the Party over this. The Party demanded that there has to be a diligent enquiry to find out the culprits. The Party also declared beyond any doubt that it had no connection with this murder as propagated by the enemies of the Party. Authorities have to adopt immediate measures to apprehend the murderers and those who instigated the murder as early as possible and present them before the judiciary so as to mete out deserving punishment to them.

It is not the policy of the Party to dispose off physically those who have disagreement. The Party has not endeavored to murder anyone who had left the Party for political or organisational reasons. It is by covering up all these truths that allegations are being spread against the Party.

Soon after the murder, the first person to come out levelling the charge against the CPI(M) was none other than Mullappally Ramachandran, MP from Vadakara and union state minister for home. Soon after, he was followed by chief minister Oommen Chandy, home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala in repeating this lie. What was the basis on which these responsible persons alleged such a crime on the CPI(M) even before an FIR was prepared on the incident of murder? It is clear that this was part of a political conspiracy. When the state DGP stated that the murder of Chandrasekharan was committed for private profit and that it is not being given a political status, home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan corrected the DGP hurriedly, stating that it was a ‘political murder’. Who is not able to see the ill-intention behind such a statement by the home minister? Such an open comment by the home minister who is the political head of the home department against the DGP who is the official head of the police department exposes the breakdown of the government functioning. This is extremely serious.

It is to be presumed that a conspiracy is taking shape in order to hunt the CPI(M). In 1972, the semi-fascist terror started in West Bengal, using the murder of Hemant Basu, leader of the Forward Bloc as a pretext to unleash an attack against the Party. The Congress government under Siddharth Sankar Ray had murdered about 1500 Party workers in West Bengal. The current attack by the anti-communist forces reminds us of that historical fact. In order to prepare a backdrop for the same, the rightist print and electronic media are lashing out with a propaganda barrage, with specially prepared news items which are coloured with lies. Political interventions are taking place which make it impossible to carry out an impartial enquiry. Public statements made by the home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, clearly make out such a dubious game plan.

It was in 2008 that T P Chandrasekharan, an area committee member and a number of Party workers left the Party. The LDF decision was that panchayat presidentships in Onchiyam area of Eramala and Azhiyoor are to be exchanged between the CPI(M) and Janata Dal after a period of two and a half years. President of Eramala panchayat from 2005 onwards was Venu who later left the Party. They kept a group of comrades with them expressing opposition to withdraw from the post of Eramala president, displaying a naked desire for position, parliamentary greed and absence of communist values. These people formed Revolutionary Marxist Party protesting against the district Party leadership for not agreeing to violate united front norms. This does not involve any issue of communist ideology. If there is any, it is the evident departure of those who left the Party, from Marxist ideology. That these people address themselves as Revolutionary Marxists, is ridiculous.

During that occasion they had never raised any objection to the political and ideological positions of the Party. Nobody can argue that the Party had any resentment towards Chandrasekharan as the Party had given opportunity to rectify himself by inducting him in the area committee after his one year suspension from the Party in 2001. Challenging the Party decision to give Eramala panchayath president position to the LDF constituent Janata Dal for two and half years during the last phase, as part of the decision to avert damaging the Left Democratic Front (LDF), they left the Party by misleading some comrades and had never raised any ideological question at that point of time. They utilised the differences and disputes that existed in Eramala panchayath on various issues between the CPI(M) and Janata Dal activists as an opportunity at that time.

These sections to some extent were successful in splitting the LDF vote during the 2009 parliament elections which helped the UDF candidate Mullappalli Ramachandran to get elected. It further aided the Veerendra Kumar Janata Dal combined UDF to win in the 2010 local bodies election in the Eramala panchayath. At the same time, in Onchiyam panchayath, the RMP was able to win only in the seats where they aligned with the UDF. In those wards, the LDF candidates were defeated with meager margins.  In 2011 assembly elections, despite the divisive role of these sections, the LDF emerged victorious in the Vadakara constituency by defeating the Veerendra Kumar Janata Dal combined UDF. The Eramala panchayath in Vadakara is considered as the strongest hold of the Veerendra Kumar Janata Dal in the state. It was in that constituency the Janata Dal, a constituent of the LDF, defeated the Veerendra Kumar Janata Dal candidate, a constituent of the UDF.

Hence, it is obvious that the ‘Revolutionary Marxist Party’ balloon bloated by the UDF and the right wing media, flattened out rapidly. As a result of the patient and vigilant efforts of the Party, a major section among the misguided comrades came back to the Party. The huge participation of the masses in the 20th Congress of the Party astonished even the opponents. Given these facts, it was vividly clear that the anti-Party section could no longer survive. At this juncture can there be any motive for the CPI(M) to murder Chandrashekharan? Who is the real beneficiary of the murder? These questions establish the dubious motivation behind the murder.

Unlike the past days, the Party enemies are currently using new tactics to attack the Party. Instead of attacking the Party as a whole, they tactically showcase a section in the Party as symbols of vice and some others as role models and symbols of virtue. The anti-Party section of Shoranur had enunciated these propaganda tactics that were subsequently used by the Onchiyam anti-CPI(M) camp. This bourgeois media aided propaganda was intended to generate confusion among the Party ranks.  After the killing of Chandrasekharan, these sections intensified the same propaganda. The RMP openly took a position that some people in the CPI(M) can visit Chandrasekharan’s house and others are not allowed to do so. It is definite that the thoughtful people of Kerala will reject this malicious campaign that intends to divide the Party and malign its leadership.

It is unfortunate that a section of the writers joined the malicious campaign unleashed by the Congress party, the UDF and some reactionary media intended to tarnish the Party. Any criticism is appreciated if there is any substantial base behind such criticism. But it is unjustifiable to denounce the Party on the basis of fabricated speculations.

The Congress Party’s enthusiasm to create the smokescreen of CPI(M) violence is absurd. It is the Congress men who had burnt alive five comrades at Cheemeni in Kasaragod. It was the same Congress party who had brutally beaten and killed Moyarath Sankaran, a former Congress leader who had written the history of the Congress, as he left the Congress party and joined the Communist movement. The ultra Left and the Congress party had joined together to assassinate Comrade Azheekkodan Raghavan. It is ironical that the Congress Party organises Shanthi Yatra (peace march) led by its state president using the Onchiyam incident, as the same Congress party is tainted with the bloodstains of the numerous comrades like Kunhali, the Communist leader of Eranad.   It is to be noted that Onchiyam is remembered in history because of the heroic martyrs, where eight comrades were shot dead and two comrades were killed in the police lockup, thanks to the repressive and notorious the then Congress government.

The last Party state conference carried out all the proceedings unanimously. It shows the growing unity in the state Party. The conference culminated with greater confidence and enthusiasm. The 20th Party Congress unitedly adopted its political tactical line and ideological document. The united understanding of the Party on political tactical line and ideological question inspired the entire Party. The massive people’s participation in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikkode related with the state conference and the Party Congress annoyed the Party enemies. They were in search of new weapons against the CPI(M).  

In Onchiyam area during the last four years, a section of people under the banner of ‘Revolutionary Marxist Party’ were engaged in damaging the Party.  The Onchiyam Party which carries the legacy of the heroic martyrs successfully prevailed over the challenges and dynamically led the Party. Till date the anti-communists and their media maliciously broadcast that the Party splitters are indulging in ideological struggle and they are continuing with the same propaganda even today. It is certain that those who are for the moment influenced by the deceptive propaganda of the class enemies will realise their mistake and rectify it. The state secretariat called upon all the Party cadres, sympathisers and friends to come together to resist the offensive of the Party enemies so as to defend the Party.