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Bharatiya Pragna
February 2000
Q. Could you give us
the details on these incidents?
A. The attacks on RSS
cadres date back to 1958. In 1958, the Mangalore Ganesh Beedi factory shifted
to Mangalore (from Kerala) due to labour problems created by the Communist
unions. Innumerable workers including Communists - lost their jobs. Sangh
swayamsevaks played an active role then in rehabilitating these workers
by securing alternate employment for them. Beedi leaves were distributed,
beedis were made in houses and marketed under the name of Mahalakshmi Agencies
which the swayamsevaks had started. Consequently, many Communists joined
the RSS. The Communists retaliated by attacking RSS cadres. Pinarai Vijayan
(who is a Minister in the present Nayanar Ministry) masterminded the attacks
then. Vadikkal Ramakrishnan, a swayamsevak, was the first victim. Since
then, the attacks have continued unabated.
In 1975, the RSS led the struggle against the imposition of Emergency. The Marxist party which had always spoken a lot about “freedom” did nothing at all. For many Marxists, this was an opportune moment to evaluate themselves against the RSS. Naturally, many Marxists were attracted to our side.
Around that time, there were only 17 or 18 shakhas in Thalassery Taluk of Kannur district. Post-Emergency, the number crossed 55. This was a victory to the wide reach that the swayamsevaks enjoyed. However, this region was a Marxist bastion (in fact, the constituency of the present CM, E.K. Nayanar). For the Marxists, the Sangh’s spectacular growth was loathesome. So brutal attacks on RSS began once again.
Swayamsevak Ponnunda Chandran (a college student and son of a Communist functionary) was killed at a ‘shakha sanghasthan’ by the Marxists. From then on till 1982 (when the Sangh was not powerful enough here) the clashes continued. Whenever we filed complaints with the police about the Marxist attacks on us, the police would reply, “Do not conduct the shakhas then”
Q. What do you think
are the reasons for this rampant lawlessness?
A. The reasons are many.
The first is the intolerance of the Marxists. They cannot tolerate the
growth of any organisation that is opposed to them. The fact that most
of the swayamsevaks who have been killed are ex-Marxists would be a pointer
to this. Second, the ‘dadagiri’ mentality of the Marxists who want to maintain
their stranglehold over this region. Be it selecting a girl’s groom or
allowing a new organisation to function, there are Marxist leaders here
today who feel that they should decide each and every aspect of the people’s
lives.
Q. About the recent incidents...
A. The recent incident
in Kannur is a peak in the Marxist violence. Kizhakke Kathirur is a village
in Kannur. The local Communist leader Jeyarajan is a Manager with the Communist
mouthpiece daily “Deehabhhmaann”. Since there was no shakha there, a few
youths went to attend a shakha at the neighbouring village. In retaliation,
the Marxists razed the houses of these swayamsevaks to the ground.
A year later, these houses were rebuilt with the help of swayamsevaks from the neighbouring villages. They were razed to the ground again in three days. A few months later, these houses were rebuilt again by the swayamsevaks in the presence of the Tehsildar. This time, the houses were attacked with bombs in front of the Tehsildar himself and razed to the ground yet again. Finally, the Tehsildar also pleaded helplessness.
Further, Jeyarajan the local Communist Dada, barred the swayamsevaks from entering their own villages. It is a tradition in Kerala to celebrate Onam with parents. These swayamsevaks were prohibited from doing even that. The swayamsevaks bore the brunt of the retaliatory attacks of the Marxists. Jayakrishnan Master, a school teacher and BJP State Youth Wing Secretary, was brutally butchered by Marxist goons in the school (where he taught) before the very eyes of his students. Fierce clashes started again.
Q. Did the police not
take any, action in this matter?
A. Everytime the Marxist
party comes to power, it has become a common practice to use the police
force for its political games. Many in the Police department are Communists
in khakhi uniforms. Most of these people were selected during the earlier
Communist ruling periods. The police selection exams were conducted only
to provide employment for the youths belonging to Communist organisations
like the SFI and DYFI. Consequently, scores of Red Foxes managed to infiltrate
into the Police department.
Even worse, highly sensitive areas came under the charge of such hardcore Marxist Police Officers. The murder of Jeyakrishnan took place when one such hardcore Marxist - Shekaran Miniyettan - was the DIG of Thalassery Range. He has never acted with responsibility. Whenever we file a complaint that RSS workers are being attacked, the police do not register our complaints. Even if they do, a lot of loopholes are planted to let the Marxist goondas conveniently escape.
Q. Don’t the papers in
Kerala report on such biases of the Police?
A. Mathrubhumi and Malayala
Manorama have published such news. Mathrubhumi has on so many occasions
come up with headlines and editorials on the bloodlust of the Marxist goons
and the inefficiency of the Police force in containing it.
Q. What does the Opposition
Party, the Congress, do? Does it take note of the issue?
A. They condemn the
Marxists. But they also do not want to concede any advantage to us. So
they condemn the RSS too. They keep an equidistance from the attackers
and the attacked. The sad truth however is that the Congress does not want
these clashes to end.
Q. What do the other
Parties and organisations do?
A. Not only the RSS,
but other organisations and parties are also becoming the targets of Marxist
intolerance and the Police brutality. Recently, Satheeshan, a swayamsevak,
was killed by the Marxists in Aalapuzha district. He paid the price with
his life for having dared to question the sale of spurious liquor in the
area by the Marxists. But the police turned the case around saying that
Satheeshan had died of a cardiac arrest. They also produced a post-mortem
report to that effect. Worse still, Marxist leader Achuthanandan claimed
that Satheeshan himself was involved in the sale of spurious liquor.
Satheeshan’s father is a Congressman. He has also been arrested since. His crime - having attacked the anti-socials who killed his son. He has been jailed on a non-bailable offence. Such is the fate of even a Congressman.
The Marxists are at loggerheads even with their own comrades of the CPI. When a few Marxists crossed over to AITUC, they faced the murderous wrath of their own former colleagues. The height of this barbarism was the public speech. in which Marxist MLA Kodieri Balakrishnan warned that any Communist leaving the Marxist fold would lose either his head or limbs.
Q. So many gruesome incidents
have happened What is tire mental state of the people of Kerala?
A. People have grown
sick of all this violence. But politically, the Congress is deriving mileage
from all this besides nurturing its sizeable minority vote bank in the
State. But due to the easily vacillating policies of the Congress, the
Marxists always come back to power. The vote bank in Kerala lies polarized
between these two big parties. To throw out the Marxists, even the Sangh
sympathisers are forced to vote for the Congress.
Q. Is there any caste
factor in these clashes between the Marxists and the RSS ?
A. No. In fact, the
attackers and the attacked mostly belong to one community - the Ezhava
community.
Q. Can’t you enlist the
services of social organisations to resolve this problem? Is it not possible
to create a social integration against tire Marxists and the Congress?
A. Today there are caste
- based Hindu organisations like the NSS (Nair Service Society) and the
SNDP (Sri Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam). In the past, leaders with
Hindu consciousness, Mannath Padmanathan and R. Shankar, were heading these
organisations. But today, self-centred and egocentric leaders rule these
organisations.
There are sincere people too in these organisations - mostly at the lower levels. As long as these people do not come to the forefront, it would be difficult to involve these organisations in any action.
Q. Can’t you take the
issue to the people through campaigns and create an awareness about the
evil designs of the Marxists?
A. This requires an
indepth answer... Within three days of’ Nayanar having assumed power recently,
an RSS worker was killed in Thalassery by the Marxists. When a peace meeting
was conducted, all the parties requested us to consider having lost a worker
for the sake of lasting peace in Kannur. We accepted the proposal and limited
ourselves to condemnation meetings and peace meetings.
But the Marxists were not thinking on our lines. They were talking of total elimination of all swayamsevaks as the only means for lasting peace. In the process, we lost five more swayamsevaks. All the while, the police kept silent and remained a mute spectator.
Marxists manufacture bombs. On one occasion recently, the explosives exploded upon themselves killing two on the spot. Do you know how the State Government turned the case around? They said that the two were killed when RSS workers came in a jeep and hurled bombs at them. The fact was that, the spot where the accident occurred was inaccessible even on a cycle. To let the Marxists escape, the police foisted false cases on our workers.
In such a situation, the lives of the swayamsevaks have become very cheap. Only when there is a tense situation does the Government sit up and take notice. This has to change first. As far as the Sangh is concerned, we do not wish to harm anyone. We are convinced of this.
Q. For the first time
you had a one-to-one meeting with the Chief Minister. What transpired at
the meeting?
A. This is not the first
time. In 1980 (E.K. Nayanar was the CM then too), I had met him once. Kumaraswamy,
a Police officer, had issued a written order to all the Police stations
asking to report the number of RSS workers arrested everyday. I showed
the circular to Nayanar and asked him for an explanation. As a result,
the officer was transferred. It is the same this time around. It was Kumaraswamy
then; DIG Shekaran Miniyettan today. The latter’s terror tactics are horrifying.
After entering the house of a swayamsevak, the Police would destroy all the expensive household durables like television sets, radios etc. and then dump them into the well of the house. They would then collect all the clothes that they find in the house, dump them in the courtyard of the house and set them on fire. After doing all this, they would pour kerosene into the well of the house. Even the well water is made unusable. Such mean-mindedness! When the policemen return to the station after committing all these atrocities, the first question that Shekaran would ask is “Did you pour kerosene into the well? “This is the way a so-called responsible Police officer behaves. Whither Justice and Security for the common man? It is Fascist hell! It is Hitler Raj in Kerala today. I have given a complaint against this Police official to the Chief Minister.
Q. Does the Sangh have
any strategies to bring back a harmonious atmosphere in Kerala?
A. We are currently
pursuing a three-pronged strategy. One, to regain our rights in a democratic
manner, we are following non-violent modes of satyagrahas and campaigns.
Through this, we are trying to bring to light the atrocities of the Marxists.
But we are also careful that others do not misinterpret our restrained
approach to be a sign of weakness.
Even when many RSS cadres lost their lives or were seriously injured, there was not even a murmur from any quarter be it the politicians, the police or the general public. But when the clashes occurred, everybody sat up and started talking about peace and the CM called for an all-party meeting for the first time.
Presently, we are working towards creating a situation wherein all the Hindu organisations in Kerala can converge on a common platform. We are hoping to put a full stop to the violent politics of the Marxists soon by mass contact programmes. By the grace of the Almighty we are confident that the swayamsevaks will definitely accomplish this in Kerala to make it a peaceful, prosperous and harmonious State where Hindus will be in a position to live honourably.
(Interviewed by V. Savarkardasan
and V.M. Murali. English Translation by Rajeev.)
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