Kerala, the most literate state in the country, is now in a state of mayhem. And the root cause of such upheaval is the conflict of ideologies between different political parties. Kerala Political Analyst and Social Worker, PKD Nambiar opines that the violence in Kerala is not new. This series of violence in the state is 60 years old and the base has always been the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPIM).
According to Mr. Nambiar, since the advent of CPI (M) government, the party has been trying to impose its ideologies on the common man. The party has never accepted people or parties who do not follow their beliefs. This is the reason why the state has witnessed violent incidents over the decades, between CPI (M) and other parties, including BJP-RSS and Congress.
Nambiar, who correctly understands the politics of Kerala, said in an interview, “One of the most important things of the CPI (M)’s violent policies is that it does not mind in indulging in the brutal killings of people who do not follow its norms. In fact, some murders are more ruthless than the killings in Kashmir.”
Mr. Nambiar comprehends the politics in Kerala. In an interview he said, “One of the most important things of the CPI (M) policies is that they strongly believe that every single individual in Kerala needs to follow their ideology, irrespective of their personal opinions”
On being asked about what has changed after the formation of the CPI (M) government under the Left Front in the last assembly elections, Mr. Nambiar said, “We all witnessed a decline in violence. However, after the party returned to power, we now see that the violence is gradually increasing with time. It is surprising to see that in 20 years, hundreds of people have died and many handicapped, most of whom were BJP and RSS workers, some of them were also Congressmen. There were also few CPI (M) supporters who lost their lives due to political conflicts.”
However, the positive part of the story, according to Mr. Nambiar is that the national media has started covering such violence and political crisis, occurring in the state. He said that earlier such violence was limited to the Kannur district of Kerala, but now it has spread to Thiruvananthapuram, where the BJP office was attacked. And that the people need to know what is happening in this part of the state.
Mr. Nambiar was asked to share his views on the growing trend of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization amidst the youth of Kerala and its role in igniting violence, he said, “This is entirely a different issue. The situation that we are facing in Kerala today is completely political”.
When asked about the riots and its impact on the common people, the Activist said that the local people are threatened at the moment and are too scared to speak against any political party. According to him, the primary problem of all the violence is the intolerance of communist wherein they do not accept or allow anyone to practise any other ideology and more often RSS and BJP are at the receiving end primarily because they always resist these atrocities
Mr. Nambiar was asked if the BJP’s position in Kerala was getting stronger and if this could be the reason for CPIM’s agitation. On this he said, “BJP is strong in the state and has been strong since past 250 years. And that it could be a reason for CPIM’s distress and might render them violent.” On being asked if there is a solution to these issues, he said that unless CPIM decides to stop the clash, nothing can be expected.
He concluded the interview by stating that he has high hopes on the media to bring the fact to the forefront for people and make them realize the condition of the situation. Only when the people are aware, can we hope for a change.