A NATIONWIDE campaign on so-called “Marxist Terror” in Kerala, unleashed by BJP under the guidance of RSS, has been going on uninterrupted. In almost every press conference, BJP’s national leaders, including Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, are repeating the same rhetoric of CPI (M)’s terror which has allegedly intensified under the new LDF regime. A national meeting held in Kozhikode also called for protest action against the “violence”. This vicious campaign was mainly rotating in Kannur district, a traditional stronghold of the left movement in Kerala.  

The victory of LDF in last Assembly election has proven that the base of secular forces in the state is very strong. Since BJP assumed power at the Centre in 2014, RSS has been making active plans to get an entry into the polity of Kerala. Unlike other states, RSS does not have enough mass support in Kerala. Even though their shakhas are functioning and swayamsevaks are active, they have not been able to increase their influence among the people. RSS has realised that only by destroying Kerala’s political tradition and secular fabric, it will be able to divide the people on communal lines and advance their supremacy. In Kerala, more than 650 CPI(M) workers have become martyrs so far. Out of this, more than 200 were killed by RSS.

This high-voltage campaign provided an opportunity to CPI(M) to expose and demystify the saffron campaign. The campaign of RSS itself has proved to be a farce as terror perpetrated by its cadre escalated. The CPI(M) state committee has successfully launched state-wide campaigns to expose RSS terror in Kerala as well as the rest of the country.

In the short span of four months after LDF came to power, RSS has murdered five CPI(M) activists. Over 35 party offices were ransacked. Hundreds of workers were attacked. The central RSS leadership has been providing money and weapons as well as deploying hitmen for targeting Kannur district. RSS in Thalassery taluk has been receiving special patronage of the central leadership. However, these attempts failed. Now another effort is being made using the central government’s influence. This should be resisted politically and organisationally by mobilizing a vast majority of the people. It is highly essential to take up campaigns to educate the people about the true nature of the activities of RSS and how BJP has been functioning in the state. Unlike the false propaganda machinery of RSS, a systematic and academic campaign launched by CPI(M) has made a headway among the common people. Campaign jathas aimed at reaching out to the common people were huge success.

Historical facts regarding the RSS attacks in the state have been made public in CPI(M) campaigns. If we go through the history of RSS attacks, we can see the fact that RSS had started the criminal activities right from 1969. In the beginning, RSS had targeted beedi workers in Kannur district who belonged to the lowest strata of the society. The first attack occurred on March 17, 1969 in Dinesh Beedi Company at Meloor in Dharmadam. Armed attackers came in three cars, but were resisted by the workers and the local people.

The RSS gang abandoned the car and got away by swimming across a river. Their vehicle was torched by the people. RSS mounted another attack on April 27, 1969. The present CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who was a 16-year-old student at that time, suffered serious injuries in his head in the attack. The incident was reported in Mathrubhoomi daily on April 28. Thus, it was RSS which had started the aggressive actions in the region in the late sixties. Subsequent killings have their origin in these initial attacks started by RSS.

The riot organized and executed by the RSS in Thalassery in 1971 reveals their tactics of spreading lies and unleashing of terror employed by RSS. They propagated that Muslims had stripped naked Hindu girls and cut off their breasts. This news spread like fire in Thalassery taluk in December 1971. It was alleged that Muslim killer gangs were coming from Malappuram and were going to attack Hindu temples and rape Hindu women. RSS cadres exhorted people in Thalassery villages that all Hindus having any self-respect should retaliate with whatever weapons they could get hold of. The trouble started on December 28in Thalassery during a temple procession (kalasham). RSS sparked the fire of communal riots by propagating that the temple procession was attacked in front of Noorjahan Hotel by Muslims. First the hotel and later a mosque and madrasas were attacked. Looting and arson continued. When the Muslims retaliated, further attacks were conducted targeting them with great vigour. It was CPI(M) workers who braved their own lives to protect the suffering people. The plan for spreading the riot to other areas and setting Muslims’ places of worship on fire were foiled. RSS which had experience in mass killing of minorities during the communal riots in many north Indian towns could not succeed in their plan in Thalassery due to the stiff resistance put up by CPI(M) workers.

K Karunakaran, the then Kerala Home Minister, appointed a Commission led by Justice Joseph Vithayathil to inquire into the Thalassery riots. Justice Vithayathil, in his 118-page report, recorded: “It is an undisputed fact that no leader of the Marxist party was involved in the riots. There is evidence that Marxist workers who came in a car on the evening of December 29, 1971 tried to dissuade the people from indulging in rioting.” CPI(M) did not give any evidence before the Commission since the party had boycotted the inquiry. Yet Justice Vithayathil did record in the report about the brave actions of the Marxist to foil the riots. It was toward the end of the Thalassery riots on January 4, 1972 that U K Kunhiraman, a CPI(M) leader from the region, was killed by the RSS goons, while he was trying to protect the Muslims.  

After the Thalasseri riot, RSS resorted to widespread attacks against the CPI(M) workers and leaders. P Jayarajan, the present secretary of CPI(M) Kannur district committee was attacked in broad daylight in an Onam day in 1999.

The Republic Day of 1994 was greeted with the news of K V Sudheesh’s martyrdom. Sudheesh, who emerged within a short span of time as a leader of the student movement, was killed while he was still a student. He was a central committee member and state joint secretary of SFI, the largest student organization of Kerala. He was also a member of the Koothuparambu local committee of CPI(M) and a representative to the Kannur district council from Chirackal.

On November 10, 1981, the most heinous murder in the history of Alappuzha and Kerala was committed. That midnight, CPI(M) activist N G Thankappan’s blood was shed at Mankombu, Kuttanad. That night Kerala witnessed the most brutal murder, like those executed by the Taliban and IS today. The valiant comrade Thankappan’s head was chopped off and displayed at the Mankombu bridge. Thankappan was a volunteer in the struggle to ensure that the paddy of the landlord Vinnamattom Chandraswami is kept in the field itself after harvest. The RSS folks who came to take the harvested paddy off the field were resisted by the workers’ union and CPI(M).

Kollam town will tell another barbaric incident in which the cannibals were not satisfied even after killing. The blood dripping hand chopped off from Sunil Kumar’s body was hanged on CITU flagpost. This shocking incident is also a part of RSS violence series. Raising the hand incised from Sunil Kumar’s body, RSS group shouted: ‘This will also be your fate, if you continue walking with the Red flag’. This was the cruelest political murder that Kollam ever witnessed. The incident happened in early morning of December 6, 1996. Sunil Kumar, then DYFI Apsara junction unit president and a construction worker, was hacked to death at home by a group of 20 armed RSS-BJP persons. He was cut into pieces in front of his parents, wife and his child. His mother Mridula was also seriously injured by them as she tried to resist the attack. Biju and Aji, Sunil’s brothers, were also severely injured.

A famous Kerala athlete from Kannur, Sathyan who was a Congressman, Koyon Rajeevan, a Janata Dal leader, and K P Chathu were among the victims of the RSS’ killing spree in Kerala. RSS in Kannur not only carries out political murders, but act as mafia gangs also. They have taken up local disputes related to property and financial transactions and have resorted to murder in this connection. K P Chathu, belonging to a prominent landlord family, was murdered in April, 1982 in a crowded private bus over certain land-related disputes involving his brother.

The fascist politics which reached its peak under the Modi regime was abandoned by hundreds of its cadres, who chose to join the red flag. O K Vasu, former national council member of BJP, A Ashokan, former district general secretary, and many other RSS leaders and workers joined CPI(M) during 2014 and 2015. The meeting organised for welcoming those who joined CPI(M) was attended by thousands of people. A CPI(M) branch office was opened in Cheruvancherry, which once was under the complete supremacy of RSS. Earlier CPI(M) offices used to get destroyed regularly as soon as an attempt was made to put up one -- for over 30 times during the past two years. Sudheesh Minni, an RSS pracharak, left the saffron camp and joined the Left movement. He is a representative of many RSS cadres in the district who wish to get away from the brutal culture of Sangh Parivar. Sudheesh is now active in the Communist movement despite constant threats to his life. Sudheesh had joined RSS at the age of seven.

A photo exhibition depicting all these facts has been conducted in Thiruvananthapuram in the first week of November. Pictures and notes exposing the real face of RSS have been watched by thousands of people in three days. Various seminars and campaigns were also organised as part of this campaign. A documentary film was also made. The release of the film and the inauguration of the exhibition took place at a well-attended function in the state capital. CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and freelance journalist and script writer Chetana Theerthahalli attended the function. An album, prepared in both Malayalam and English, was released by CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury at a function held in Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on November 7.