My Grandmother’s 40th day rituals was on 06th September 2016. So I was in my hometown to attend it. It was also a kind of family get together as this was planned a month back and all my cousins had promised to be there. My family from my dad’s side are all communists (hard core). I and my brother are the only ones who support Modi and BJP.
On 08th September 2016, I woke up to a shocking news that one BJP cadre Navneeth was attacked and was admitted to a hospital with serious injuries. This was a shocking news to me because this happened in our locality (Pathiriyad-Kuthuparambha, Kannur), just 1 km away from my uncle’s house (where I was staying). It was me who informed my uncle about this and he left immediately to find out more details.
My uncle came back after couple of hours. He told me that this ‘Navneeth’ was the most vocal of the BJP workers in the area. He was the one who leads any kind of protests and also the fund collections. My uncle also stated that he was a rogue element who did not listen to anyone in his family. But what made me curious was, what rights CPM men have to punish anyone. The government is theirs, the police under them, they could just have him arrested and put in prison.
The reason why such attacks happen is to intimidate the other ‘to be’ BJP workers. If you take out their leader, the confidence of the followers will be broken. This is precisely the reason why CPM targets the most enthusiastic works of other parties.
Now back to the Navneeth episode, after the incident, the BJP workers had called for a shutdown in the area and asked the shopkeepers to shut shop. All the shopkeepers had closed fearing any attacks and damage to property. This is when CPM gets involves, it asks the shopkeepers to open shops right away or else they will remain closed forever. The shopkeepers are forced to open the shops.
CPM very well knows that if they let BJP/RSS to gain even a foothold in their strongholds, then they won’t be able to stop the growth of the right-wing in the state. My uncle also spoke about the current plans of the LDF government to ban RSS shakhas in temples. This is to keep out RSS from the temple management. The communists believe that the growth of RSS/BJP is because of their involvement in temples.
This is why I say, the NDA government at the center has to make sure that it protects the interests of its cadres and supporters. Without them, BJP will not be able to grow in Kerala. Too many precious lives have been lost recently. Center has to interfere. And it has to do it now.
