CPI(M) sees efforts to depoliticize Kerala

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) State committee, which met in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday and Wednesday, identified certain recent trends that were “disturbing the delicate communal balance” in the State as a threat the party and the people should be vigilant about.

Briefing the press at the conclusion of the meet, party State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said the fifth Minister issue the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had successfully taken up with the Oommen Chandy dispensation had created a flutter within the Congress itself.

“The influence that the IUML has over the Muslim masses is relatively in the Malabar area, particularly in Malappuram district. The IUML is trying to spread its influence to other parts of the State,” he said.

This had prompted organisations such as the Nair Service Society (NSS) and the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam to join hands and several Hindu organisations and communal organisations had also expressed the desire to work with them. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) too had taken an interest in exploiting the situation. “The RSS is trying to see weather it can revive a politics that the people of Kerala had always kept far away,” Mr. Vijayan said.

He said efforts were on at several levels to build up communal and religious divide in the Kerala society. There was an effort to depoliticize the Kerala society, where the Left ideology had always been very deep-rooted. Efforts were also on to bring back retrograde social practices. Everyone was trying to see whether the Left could be uprooted and for that purpose a vigorous propaganda too was on. This had to be countered by the party and the agenda of it all had to be exposed, he said.

Mr. Vijayan mentioned in this context the propaganda unleashed by the press with the help of the police through certain stories connected with the murder of National Development Front worker Mohammed Fazal in Thalassery. One propaganda was that the CPI(M) had made preparations for carrying out a communal riot in Thalassery. There were efforts to turn even places of worship against the CPI(M). From either side of the communal divide, moves were afoot to effect communal polarisation and the government was protecting both sides, he alleged.

“The government is encouraging the communal forces with the intension of overcoming the growing anger of the people against the policies of the governments at the Centre and in the State, which are making the lives miserable,” he said.