VS dismisses remarks with contempt
Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan and CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan have come out in very strong term against CPI(M) Idukki district secretary M.M. Mani for his statement that the party had indulged in retaliatory killings in the district in early eighties.
Mr. Vijayan told reporters here on Sunday that the Idukki district secretary had committed a mistake and deviated from party stand by making the statement. His statement had come at a time when party's enemies were out to attack it at all available opportunities.
The party would like to reiterate its earlier directive to all party functionaries not to make any controversial statement, the CPI(M) State secretary said.
Coming down on Mr. Mani in even sharper terms, Mr. Achuthanandan said that his statement should be dismissed with the contempt that it deserved.
Mr. Mani's statement seemed to suggest that the CPI(M) was a party of murderers. He was not the district secretary of the CPI(M) at the time (when the murders referred to by him had happened), Mr. Achuthanandan, who was the party State secretary during early eighties, said.
However, the UDF leadership appeared to be in no mood to let matters be.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy pointed out that CPI(M) State secretary had not stated that what Mr. Mani had stated was untrue or that no murder had taken place. As such, the cases referred to by Mr. Mani would have to be examined, he said.
Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said the legal advice that the government had received showed that the cases referred to by Mr. Mani deserved to be re-examined. The government, he said, did not wish to deviate from the legitimate legal path. It had called for an examination of the issue and would take appropriate decisions once it received advice from legal experts on the best course of action, Mr. Radhakrishnan said.
Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikkutty and Power Minister Aryadan Mohammed also joined issue with the CPI(M) State secretary and called for a re-investigation of the cases in question.
Keywords: Mani's speech, Kerala politics
Unfortunately for Mr. Vijayan and the CPI (M), their foot-soldier in Idukki engaged in quite the slip of the tongue. Much as the red brigade would have preferred that " party functionaries not.. make any controversial statement", this is no mere statement, this is a brazen boast about the details of specific crimes that were committed.
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The CPI(M) and RSS cannot hide the fact that both formations derive their inspiration from ideologies that may be different in intent, but that are mirror images of each other in terms of deep-seated and recurring pathological violence.
But ethics and history have never figured in the discourse and practice of either formation. On the contrary mass murderers such as Stalin and Hitler are icons of the CPI(M) and RSS respectively.
That these two formations are the dominant tendencies on college campuses in Kerala, along with the parrot brigade of the Congress, guarantees that Kerala can look forward to the tragic repetition of this sordid history.
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