Kannur murder reverberates in Kerala Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram, May 15 (IANS) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said the hacking of an RSS worker in Kannur last week has come as a shock and also slammed the BJP's demand for imposition of AFSPA in the district.

Speaking in the state assembly that reverberated with the killing of an RSS local office bearer on Friday, Vijayan said that with the peace talks in February things were going on smoothly in Kannur, known as a hot spot for political murders. He said more than 240 peace talks had been held across the district.

Coming down heavily on the BJP, Vijayan said the party is trying to misuse the Governor and accused two senior leaders of having spoken in a threatening tone against the Governor.

"Soon after this murder took place, a Facebook post by state BJP president Kummanem Rajasekheran showed the celebration of the CPI-M."

"But no one knows where this purported celebration took place, and the police have already begun a probe into this. The police will go forward and register a case if it is found to be wrong," the Chief Minister said.

On the demand for imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Kannur, he said: "No one with a sense of respect for democracy will ever seek imposition of AFSPA, as we all saw what happened when it was imposed in the northeast."

He also came down heavily on the Congress party after they kept intervening during his reply and said that he failed to understand why the Congress was getting impatient when he was attacking the BJP.

Vijayan assured the House that the police is doing a clean job and has taken two suspects into custody and will crack the case soon.

Earlier, the Congress-led opposition came down heavily on the ruling CPI-M and the BJP for the recurrence of political killings in Kannur district, with both these parties settling scores against one another by destroying peace in the district.

Seeking leave for an adjournment motion, senior Congress leader and legislator from Kannur district K.C.Joseph said the peace talks that took place three months back in Kannur have gone haywire with the brutal murder of a BJP leader Biju on May 12.

"It has now surfaced that Biju's murder was a well-planned and executed to revenge a killing, though Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan described it as a one-off incident. But what should be noted is that, 18 murders have taken place after you assumed office in May last year," he said.

"Of these, eight political murders alone have taken place in Kannur with five BJP and three CPI-M workers getting killed. These two parties are on a revenge killing and we have seen the Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam being dragged into this. Kannur is the headquarters of the CPI-M, and in Kannur the police works as the B Team of the CPI-M. Unless the state government acts tough, freely and fairly, nothing can be done," said Joseph.

On Friday, Biju an RSS worker, also the 12th accused in a murder case involving a CPI-M worker last year at Payyanur, was knocked down by an Innova car and hacked to death.

An angry state BJP leadership called on Sathasivam on Saturday and sought the imposition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Kannur.

A few senior BJP leaders also came down heavily on Sathasivam for not acting over the political killings, which it alleged have been engineered by the CPI-M.

Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said that AFSPA was imposed in the Northeast for a specific reason.

"Please check on facts and for information a few stray incidents that took place there should not be generalised. You can find for yourselves how AFSPA helped the people there," said Chennithala.

Chennithala attacked Vijayan and said the CPI-M is solely responsible for the current state of affairs and through its actions the party is "giving more and more space and visibility to the BJP".

"You are indirectly helping the BJP through these acts of violence. We are not at all for invoking the Governor in all this. But we strongly condemn the manner in which the BJP is trying to use him as their tool," added Chennithala, and protesting the Speaker's decision for not allowing a discussion on the topic, he took the opposition out of the house.

BJP's lone legislator in the 140-member Assembly O. Rajagopal said the need for imposition of AFSPA is just in Kannur district only and not for the state.

"The sad fact in Kerala is any upright officer who takes an impartial stand is branded as an RSS/BJP activist and that's most unfortunate. If there has been any emotional statement made against the governor by BJP leaders, it was just an overreaction and nothing beyond that," he clarified.