THE Congress and the UDF is not only trying to white-wash the deeds of RSS and its political face the BJP, but they are also attempting to join hands with them in an effort to defeat the LDF. What we saw in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation during the election to the District Planning Committee is the most recent manifestation of that. The corporation is run by the LDF which has the most number of councillors in the 100-member council. However, the UDF aligned with the BJP which has 35 members and got two people elected to the committee, one each from the BJP and the UDF. While the two CPI(M) contestants lost, the LDF contestant Adv. Jayalakshmi won in the seat reserved for women.

It is a widely accepted fact that the BJP was able to win 35 councillor seats in the corporation only with the help of the UDF. In the elections to the legislative assembly, the BJP and the UDF allied together in the Nemom and Thiruvananthapuram seats which come within the corporation’s boundary. In Nemom, Congress transferred its votes to the BJP and it was reciprocated in Thiruvananthapuram. In the bye-election to the Pappanamcode ward also, the Congress sold their votes to the BJP. The election to the district planning committee took place in the aftermath of this vote sale. This unholy alliance was built right under the very nose of Indira Bhavan, when someone like V M Sudheeran, who preaches ideals time and again is the president of KPCC. Of the two councillors of Muslim League, a member of the UDF, one abstained from voting while the other endorsed this unholy alliance. The League state leadership has neither decried this, nor taken any action against the councillor who voted for the alliance. The KPCC’s silence in not taking any disciplinary action against those who created this alliance is telling. They have not even directed those concerned, to give up the committee membership gained through this alliance with the RSS.

This unholy alliance in Kerala is being forged at a time when the RSS, BJP and the central government under them is unleashing large scale atrocities on the people of this country. The BJP is not merely a right wing political party, it is one that has a regressive social agenda and hence is different from the usual conservative right wing political parties. One has to be extremely cautious of any ties with the BJP as the RSS which has a fascistic character not only guides it but also controls it. It is a party that has come into power capitalising on the Congress’ misrule. In several countries, we have seen that when the ruling class has failed to govern the society through the existing traditional means, right wing parties have taken over that space. In the BJP’s domestic political agenda, they have two enemies standing in their way, the Muslims and the Communists.

BJP’s economic policies embrace neo-liberalism and privatisation. That is precisely why the Modi government, which has completed two years, is aggressively implementing the economic policies that were already being pursued by the Congress governments. In this regard, the BJP and the Congress are allies. At the same time, the BJP goes a step further in their submission to the US led imperialism. Modi government is making India further dependant on the US. Thus, the BJP is a right wing communal party that not only merely represents the regressive – corporate – bourgeoisie – land lord sections, but is also submissive to imperialism.

Soviet Union’s collapse and the re-establishment of capitalism in the former socialist countries of East Europe has fundamentally altered the international power structures. Subsequently, there has also been an emergence of religious fundamentalism in the third world countries. BJP and RSS are trying to strengthen Hindutva politics in India by utilising these situations. The UDF has allied with the BJP and the RSS including in Thiruvananthapuram, ignoring these facts.

These are times when there are serious threats to our national integrity in several regions, including in Kashmir. Yet, the BJP is using this as a means to empower the Hindutva communal forces. It is in these circumstances that the UDF in Kerala, consisting of the Congress and the Muslim League has allied with the BJP and traded their votes, to defeat the LDF.

The RSS and the BJP are political formations that have imbibed the politics of killing as their programme of action. Even the celebrations of Onam and Navaratri never deter them from implementing their heinous attacks. Despite moving on from khakhi shorts to khakhi trousers, they have not given up their politics of chopping off heads. That is what we saw in Pinarayi. There is no justification for the cruel murder of CPI(M) local committee member Mohanan on the occasion of Navaratri, following a high level conspiracy by the saffron brigade. At the same time as the murder was being carried out, they took out a violent protest at the CPI(M) Central Committee office, calling for the cessation of violence by the Marxists. Mohanan’s martyrdom exposes the hollowness of their protests and slogans. During the BJP’s national executive held at Kozhikode, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah had cried foul over the so-called Marxist violence. Heeding to their call to retaliate to it, the RSS and BJP have unleashed violence against the LDF workers and CPI(M) activists in particular.

The country is awaiting to see if the prime minister will take any initiative to lead the Sangh Parivar into peaceful means of political engagements, giving up their head hunting tactics. Fifty five year old Mohanan was hacked to death in the toddy shop that he was working in, inflicting 40 deadly wounds on his body. In the last three months itself, the khakhi clad have killed three CPI(M) activists in Kannur alone. Six have been critically injured after narrowly escaping the attempts of murder on them, and are undergoing treatment. Mohanan is the second member of the Party, killed in Dharmadam, the constituency represented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. On the day of declaration of election results, a bomb was thrown on victory celebrations killing Raveendran, a CPI(M) activist. Since the LDF has come to power, five CPI(M) activists have been killed by the RSS in the state. Over 200 have been attacked and seriously injured as well. Apart from that, above 80 houses and 35 party offices have also been attacked and destroyed. 

Such continuous inhuman attacks in Kerala and the continuous protests at the CPI(M) CC office accompanied by death threats against its national leaders is only happening with the knowledge of the RSS-BJP national leadership and the prime minister. These are concerted efforts to restrict the freedom of the Communist parties from engaging in their political activities. Democratic voices should unitedly protest against this move. A mass movement is essential to restrict the saffron brigade’s politics of killing. The CPI(M) and the LDF is committed to ensure that peace prevails and will support all measures initiated to maintain peace. Peace has always been the foremost priority of the CPI(M). V M Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithala are turning a blind eye to the violence unleashed by the RSS and the BJP and are propagating that the RSS and the CPI(M) are alike. This is merely a tactic to ideologically isolate the CPI(M). The BJP-UDF alliance as observed in the Thiruvananthapuram district planning committee election is the political manifestation of this tactic.