Author: John Mary
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: June 2, 2005
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050602/asp/nation/story_4816865.asp
[Note from Hindu Vivek Kendra:
Such events of human tragedy have been happening in the communist
ruled areas time and time again. However, for secularists it
is to be condoned - else the Hindu communlaists will get an upper
hand!]
A widow who managed to survive a
decade-long boycott by the pro-CPM labour union in Kozhikode district is
in hospital following an alleged attempt on her life.
Vineeta Kottayi, who owns a five-acre
plot, is scared to leave the hospital as she fears reprisals. The alleged
assailant has been arrested but, so far, no word of condemnation has come
from the Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilaly Union, which could not confirm
whether the man was still its member.
District secretary K.C. Nair said
only the village committee had the membership details and the union would
take its own time to verify if the assailant was a member.
Vineeta said three persons broke
into her house late on May 20 with a kerosene can. "I ran out through the
backdoor but the assailants closed in, splashed kerosene and lit a match
stick. I remember collapsing at a neighbour's," the former college lecturer
added.
The neighbours took her to the Medical
College Hospital in Kozhikode.
Vineeta's troubles started in 1992
when she had to return to her ancestral house in the northern district
after the death of her husband. Her father, a member of the undivided Communist
Party, had expelled a woman worker, who was also a neighbour, for encroaching
on his plot.
Soon, the union intervened, treating
it as a labour dispute and directing all labourers to keep off the farm
until the woman was taken back. The embargo remained in force for nearly
11 years, driving the family to penury.
The CPM, which virtually controls
the area, turned a blind eye to Vineeta's plight even as her crops perished
and the farm remained fallow year after year. Vineeta's son, who was beaten
up publicly by party activists, developed mental problems.
In June last year, the Janapaksham,
a Kochi-based human rights organisation, took up the matter and came to
Vineeta's house with some workers to help her. However, the CPM leaders
intervened and said the union would end the blockade on its own.
But that promise was not kept until
an ultimatum was issued by the district administration.
