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New Delhi: The often violent political battle between ruling CPM and RSS in Kerala took an ugly turn on Thursday when in faraway Ujjain a Sangh leader offered Rs 1 crore to anyone who beheads Marxist leader and state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
RSS Ujjain office bearer Kundan Chandravat had offered the bounty for Kerala chief minister’s head accusing Marxists of killing RSS activists in Kerala, particularly in Vijayan’s home district of Kannur. Chandravat also said he will sell off his entire property to collect the reward money.
Vijayan, however, laughed off the challenge. “RSS has taken heads of many people, just because of that I can’t stop travelling, and can’t stop doing my work,” he told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.
The RSS and CPM are locked in a violent fight for control over the red bastion in Kannur ever since 1969 when the first political murder happened in the district. Ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power, RSS has been campaigning nationwide highlighting what they call “Redrocities”.
Incidentally, CM Vijayan had to abandon midway a recent trip to Madhya Pradesh where he was to inaugurate a Kerala association function after RSS cadres threatened to physically stop him. He returned back to Kerala after the Madhya Pradesh government advised him not to attend the function fearing law and order problem.
Earlier, Kerala BJP leader K Surendran had warned that Vijayan would be met with RSS protests in other parts of the country for what his party is doing in Kerala.
Last week, RSS had mounted a heavy protest against Vijayan’s visit to Mangalore in South Karntaka, not far from Kannur.
Amid tension, Vijayan attended the function and gave back in kind saying he had been walking with his head high in front of “drawn daggers of RSS” ever since he was a student leader.
Political observers feel the latest threat to Vijayan’s life has now taken a local political tussle to an altogether different dimension.
Meanwhile, Bhupendra Singh, home minister of Madhya Pradesh, defended Chandravat and said that the killing of activists is an emotional issue and needs attention since most of it is being done with the protection of the state government.
“I am sure that Chandravat didn’t literally mean to do whatever he said. He must have been overcome by emotions due the increasing deaths of Hindus in the region. The entire country is angry due to the killings that happen in Northern Kerala,” Singh said.
Kerala CPM chief Kodiyeri Balakrishnan demanded the MP government should arrest Chandravat.
“The Centre should see this matter very seriously. The statement came from a member of a ruling party. BJP has so far not condemned this RSS statement. Has the RSS thrown out this person for making such statement?,” he said.
Balakrishnan said that RSS has been repeatedly making such threats.
“No one will be able to touch Pinarayi Vijayan. If RSS is trying to play games, we will teach them a lesson. We will take out protest across the state,” he said.
CPM leader and Lok Sabha MP MB Rajesh denied that there was a law and order issue in the state and termed the killings as mere political violence between the two opposing camps.
“This is utter nonsense. Law and order is much better in Kerala than in Madhya Pradesh. There are only a few political killings”, Rajesh told CNN-News18 over the phone.
Kannur district in Kerala’s north is considered the cradle of the Communist movement in the state which also leads in tit-for-tat killings between the ruling CPM and RSS workers.
The rivalry between the CPM and the RSS in Kerala has always been a murderous one. In October 2016, there were six murders — three of RSS-BJP workers and three of CPM workers — in Kannur after the assembly elections in May in the home district of the Kerala CM.
