The Congress has accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of brazenly challenging the rule of law by lionising “hardened criminals”.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president K. Sudhakaran said the CPI(M)’s move to honour the memory of two party workers who died in an accidental blast while making a crude bomb at Panur in Kannur in 2015, by erecting a martyr’s column for the dead, cast a chill on civil society.
CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan will inaugurate the memorial to Shaiju and Subesh, the alleged bombmakers, on May 22, according to party posters and banners.
In 2015, the then CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had distanced the party from the blasts, which also injured four others. Nevertheless, the then CPI(M) district secretary in Kannur P. Jayarajan had received the bodies from the morgue and cremated them on land owned by the party in Chettikandi village.
Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M) degenerated as an organisation that promoted criminality and encouraged anti-social activities. He alleged that the party sanctioned lethal action, including country-bomb attacks, against political rivals. It had created a sense of fear in Kannur to deny other political parties democratic space.
He said the police should book Mr. Govindan if he inaugurated the memorial or attended the function. Mr. Sudhakaran said the CPI(M) modelled itself after jihadist organisations which glorified bombmakers.
Mr. Sudhakaran said the CPI(M) had used lethal bombs to ambush and kill two Youth Congress workers at Periye in Kasaragod in 2019. A CPI(M) hit team had used country-made bombs with deadly effects to waylay and kill Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T.P. Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam in Kozhikode in 2012.
Both leaders pointed out that the CPI(M) promoted bomb-making during the Lok Sabha election campaign. It resulted in the death of one bomb-maker and severe injuries to other “CPI(M)” workers at Panur last month.
They said the CPI(M) had washed its hands of the incident and publicly disowned the act while assisting the families of the blast victims. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala had demanded an NIA investigation into the incident.
