KANNUR: Rivalry for more than three decades will not come to an end on a single day, believes the people behind the peace initiatives in Kannur. However, they feel a step in the right direction was made when CPM district secretary P. Jayarajan visited the house of slain BJP worker E. Santhosh at Andaloor, Dharmadam, two weeks later, along with other leaders. It was first such a move by a leader from the opposite camp. The decision was taken during a meeting convened by the district collector on October 24, and district police chief issued notices to the netas.
However, according to top RSS leaders, an initiative in this direction was made at the state level itself, and nearly nine such informal meetings were held, the first one being mediated by spiritual leader Sri M in the first week of December in a hotel in Kovalam. The indoor talks were completely away from the public eye as well as the media, as the leaders fear, what its outcome would be if that were revealed at an early stage. Only the meeting held at Mascot Hotel on Monday, where Mr Vijayan, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Anathalavattom Anandan, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, O. Rajagopal MLA and RSS leaders P. Gopalankutty master and K. K. Balram attended, was made public.
Sri M was selected as a spiritual leader, acceptable to both sides, said Mr Balram. “At one point, this violence has to end, and when the chief minister himself was also willing to take the initiative, we also joined him," said Mr Balram, who will be attending the all-party meeting to be held in Kannur on Tuesday.
"Sri M is being respected by both sides, and he is acceptable. After the informal meeting at Kovalam in December, another peace meeting was convened in Kannur on January 12. However, another murder took place a few days later.” Representatives of all the political parties with representation in the Assembly and RSS have been invited to the peace talk at the Collectorate, Kannur.
Mr Pinarayi Vijayan will chair the meeting.
Ready to head any peace initiative: P. Jayarajan
Forget about the past, the party is all set to bring peace back to the district, said CPM district secretary P. Jayarajan, who personally visited the house of the slain BJP worker, along with local leaders. However, he denied party's involvement in the murder and disowned the killers saying they could be sympathisers, not party workers.
When asked what would be his reaction if another unfortunate event happens, with the involvement of his party men or sympathisers, he said he would continue with peace initiatives. “CPM always wanted peace restored in the district. Even if party people commit a mistake, we will disown them, which the RSS fails to do,” he said.
Meeting with PM, a catalyst
The meeting of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 23, was significant in the light of the national media highlighting the political killings in Kannur. There were also major campaigns like ‘Redtrocity’ held across the country by RSS leaders like J. Nandakumar on ‘untold story of communist violence in Kerala’ all of which added to the immediate need of CM-level peace initiatives at the earliest.
December, the month of martyrs in Kannur
“April is the cruellest month,” wrote Nobel laureate T.S. Eliot in his Waste Land. But December has that dubious distinction in the killing fields of Kannur: there are 28 days in the month which various parties observe as martyr’s day. And the month had been turbulent for nearly a decade. Anticipating trouble, and calling his colleagues to pull up their socks, then district police chief K. Sanjay Kumar Gurudin to his officers in November: “I have a wish to make this December a peaceful and incident-free December. I know that it's a difficult task, but I also know and I am cent per cent sure that if every policeman decides and works hard with the same motive, this wish of ours can be made true.”
The force did what its chief wanted, and December went off peacefully this year. The government, which has since shifted Mr Gurudin, his successor K.P. Philip and Kannur Range IG Dinendra Kashyap, in quick succession, apparently has been trying various options to bring normalcy to the region. Mr Philip was replaced by G. Shiva Vikram after controversies erupted regarding letting the body of the slain BJP worker to pass through Kannur town when the State School Kalolsavam was taking place.
House visits apart, allegations remain
Vismaya was offered all the support for her further education by the district administration, on the day district collector Mir Mohammed Ali visited her house along with leaders of political parties days after her father E. Santhosh was killed, allegedly by CPM workers at Andaloor in the chief minister's Dharmadam constituency. She was even consoled and encouraged by CPM district secretary P. Jayarajan, though her mother Baby, in tears, told him that it was his party men who killed her husband.
Kannur district collector Mir Mohammed Ali and CPM district secretary P. Jayarajan at the house of slain BJP worker E. Santhosh in Andallur
There was no reaction from the leader, except a glance he made to the collector, who was nearby. It was a rare scene in the political violence-torn villages in Kannur, though giving a ray of hope for the new peace initiatives. The visit to the victim’s house apart, both parties are continuing their allegations, blaming the other for the unending bloodshed. “CPM always stood for peace," claims Mr Jayarajan.
"When killings happened without the knowledge of the party, the leadership always condemned it, unlike the RSS. But, is it the same with the RSS? All the other parties work in a democratic way, except them. Nobody, even the police, would not have any idea how many workers they have in the state. Why a political party has to be so secretive here?” He also repeated the allegations of martial training by ‘Shakhas’ (branches) of the RSS. “They are propagandists against minorities and communists. Across the nation, they are spreading their fascist ideology, and in Kerala, they are confronted by us and the violence happens,” said Mr Jayarajan.
Trying every trick in the book for peace
The Kannur district administration has tried every trick in the book to arrive at a formula that could help end the culture of violence. And one of them was a structured programme to address issues that crop up at the local level. It envisaged peace meeting every third Saturday, presided by the station house officer. The idea came after several incidents of political murders despite the leaders holding high-level peace talks.
The peace committees are led by the sub-inspector as head and village officer as joint convener. Three local leaders each from all prominent political parties are the members. The first of the meetings was convened on October 15, 2016. The grassroots level politicians were made to sit around the table to review the situations of violence in their village. However, violence continued unabated even after the formation and meetings of the peace committees. Now, even the public has lost faith in them.
Will talks change leaders’ ways, asks Sreenivasan
Filmmaker Sreenivasan, who continues to raise voice against the deadly violence in his home district of Kannur, remains a pessimist. He says he has no expectations from these peace initiatives, as the power-hungry politicians do not change their ways. “It’s sometimes funny to read about the peace initiatives by political leaders, especially those from Kannur," says the actor-scenarist-filmmaker, whose Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka is vociferous in its criticism of the region's politics. "They will guide from the front against the killings, and from behind, instruct to kill. They are power hungry and addicted to power. Who wants to keep away from power and spread peace? How can peace prevail, when the parties are after power?”
