Thiruvananthapuram: After having tasted success in effectively countering BJP’s Janaraksha Yatra through peaceful means, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Wednesday said his party would continue to rally the people to fight RSS violence in the state in a democratic manner.
At a press conference here to reply to the charges levelled by BJP national president Amit Shah at the valedictory meeting of Janaraksha Yatra on Tuesday, the CPM leader said that his party would not compete with BJP-RSS in politics of murder. “We don't intend to counter RSS violence with violence. We will expose their violent activities by mobilising the people and exposing their dangerous agenda,” he said.
“We are prepared to compete with BJP-RSS on anything barring murder politics,” he said. Kodiyeri’s statement is significant as the CPM state secretary had made inflammatory speeches last year. When he uttered the slogan “work in the fields wages at the boundary” the cadre was electrified as their leader’s statement meant sudden and bloody retaliation for any attack.
He had even gone to the extent of asking party cadre to not to allow those coming to attack their strongholds return in one piece. However, there seems to be clear shift in party's thinking on political violence.
The call given by the leadership ahead of BJP’s Janaraksha Yatra to the cadre to maintain restraint and not to get provoked by Sangh Parivar actions, has worked well for the party. There was not even a single attack on the BJP during the entire Yatra, which has encouraged the party to counter Sangh with peaceful campaign.
“Despite provocations and attacks, our cadre maintained maximum restraint. This is our party’s strength and power,” Kodiyeri said.
The CPM leader said the chief minister had taken personal initiative to convene bilateral talks between CPM and RSS-BJP which had started showing results on the ground. RSS should abide by the decisions taken at these meetings to maintain peace, he added.
Left set to counter Sangh tactics
The local, area and district conferences of the CPM will discuss and evolve effective strategies to fight the growing threat of BJP-RSS violence and attempts to create religious polarisation through divisive campaign, said state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
At the conferences these issues will be deliberated in detail by the delegates. After Janarakasha Yatra and nationwide campaign of the BJP-RSS, the CPM believes that Sangh Parivar’s main agenda is to target the Left parties and the attacks are expected to grow in the coming days.
Kodiyeri said after the BJP came to power at the Centre, the Sangh Parivar had stepped up attacks on the CPM. He alleged that 14 party workers were killed allegedly by BJP-RSS after LDF came to power in May 2016.
The CPM leaders suspect a clear move to fabricate cases against top leaders of the party which was evident from Amit Shah’s speech on Tuesday. His statement that those behind murder cases would be punished coincided with CBI expressing willingness before a court to take over seven murder cases.
CPM believes that the CBI is being misused to target political opponents. Along with the political violence, RSS is trying hard to unleash the gau rakshak model violence in the state.
The self-styled gau rakshak army has killed 26 persons mainly Muslims and Dalits. But in Kerala they have not been able to carry out similar attacks because of the Left resistance.
Kodiyeri said those involved in such lynching were being rewarded with government jobs. The message is clear that those killing people in the name of cows are being rewarded.
The party believes that the results of Vengara by poll were encouraging. During the entire election campaign and Janaraksha yatra the BJP-RSS main campaigning plank was that Kerala is Pakistan, land of love jihad, hotbed of Jihadi-Red terror and state ruled by scoundrels. However, people outrightly rejected their communal and divisive campaign. This was evident from the drop of BJP vote share from 7055 in 2016 to 5700 in 2017, it was pointed out.
