Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has provided a “butchers bill” for the political violence that has recurrently shocked Kerala’s social conscience in the past decade.
In his latest blog post (www.blog.rameshchennithala.org), he puts the count of civilian causalities in political violence till August 28 this year at 98.
Fifty-one are CPI(M) men and 34 RSS or BJP activists. He says the CPI(M) men are suspects in 45 murders and the BJP/RSS activists in 38. Forty-two of the so-called political murders had occurred in Kannur. A cursory perusal of the figures shows that most of the “political murder cases” are pending trial or appeal. Few have resulted in acquittal.
He lists the names of the victims, date and place of murder ,and their political affiliation alongside that of their suspected assailants. He dwells in length on the emotional and economic toll the murders have exacted on the families of the victims and the suspects as well.
Mr. Ramesh has often used his blog to express his current thinking, sometimes controversially so. He had created a stir when he empathised with the two girl children of Maoist Roopesh following his arrest in June.
In his latest post, Mr. Ramesh invokes the memory of T.P. Chandrasekharan and portrays his murder in 2012 as a watershed event in Kerala politics. The CPI(M), which came under the cloud of suspicion, has suffered severe set backs since.
The activist’s killing prompted a public backlash against the pervasive political culture of martyrdom and vendetta in North Kerala. In its aftermath, many thought the spectre of political violence had been buried for good. But sadly, it has returned to haunt Kerala’s civil society again as the recent round of violence in Thrissur and Kannur indicates.
The CPI(M) and the BJP are primarily responsible for the scenario. If they can talk peace, the violence will halt.
In his latest blog post, he puts the count of civilian causalities in political violence till August 28 at 98
