An all-party peace meeting here on Saturday in the presence of two Ministers may serve to blunt the criticism by Opposition parties that the government is not serious in its efforts to restore peace in parts of the district that have been bogged down in the retaliatory cycle of political violence. If the past peace meetings are anything to go by, public scepticism about such routine initiatives is unlikely to change.
The meetings always end with calls for bringing peace in the district marred by the logic of vengeance that has embraced workers of rival political parties, especially the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Sangh Parivar. As the workers of the rival parties and their leaderships are caught in the system of reasoning where revenge is an acceptable political activism, there isn’t much scope for optimism. “Yes, today we are going to witness the most-awaited peace meeting,” said a senior police officer. The comment betrays the officer’s sense of frustration about a routine exercise that he seems to believe is unlikely to achieve much.
Writer M. Mukundan, a native of Mahe, close to the politically volatile areas of Kannur, says if one of the parties decides to back out from this vicious cycle, that gesture can achieve what routine peace meetings can never do.
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The party that decides to break the chain of violence is not surrendering, he said, adding that future will remember that party.
A way of life
“Peace is not just a word but a way of life and therefore peace efforts to end the culture of violence do not make much effect beyond a certain limit unless the parties involved accept peace as a way of life,” said writer Sara Joseph.
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The parties and their workers in Kannur are impinging upon the citizens’ right to peaceful life, she told The Hindu over the phone. Ms. Joseph said the district would have peace only when civil society came out to reject the leaderships of the parties involved in violent politics.
Representatives of civil society here, however, are not without their sense of distress about the climate of unrest prevailing for years.
The biggest barrier
“The greatest barrier to peace is the lack of public outrage against political violence in the district,” said C.V. Deepak, president of the North Malabar Chamber of Commerce.
The public have, of late, started relishing even incidents of political murders because of the post-incident hartals on offer the day after. He said peace meetings should be held at the school-level so that children could be raised as messengers of peace.
The public perception is that permanent peace is likely to remain elusive as long as the leaderships of the rival parties are not held responsible for the situation in the district.