It was just three days back that the RSS held a peace meet in Kozhikode, in what they said was an attempt to stop political violence in Kerala. But apparently, the word hasn’t percolated down to their workers on the ground.
On Monday, a CPI(M) worker was attacked in Kannur, allegedly by eight RSS workers. Suresh Babu alias Sreejan, a 43-year-old auto driver, hails from Kudakkalam near Kathirur in Kannur.
"There were eight persons behind the attack,” Kathirur police confirmed to TNM. “The accused are suspected to be workers of RSS. Sreejan has been admitted to a hospital, and his statement will be recorded when his health condition is stable," they said.
The attack comes even as the meeting initiated by the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, decided to ‘focus’ on Kannur as a problem area, since the district reported the maximum number of political killings. Kannur is infamous for crimes involving RSS and CPI(M), or BJP and CPI(M) workers.
Prafulla Ketkar, the editor of Organiser, had observed that in Kannur, it was not only RSS and CPI(M) workers, but also Muslim League and Congress workers who were killed.
"We are not interested in a blame game. We are doing this as an attempt to stop political violence and killings," Ketkar had told TNM.
On Monday’s attack though, the RSS has claimed that while their workers might have been involved in the crime, the leadership had no idea about it.
"The area is dominated by CPI(M). We had conducted a one on one peace discussion on Monday at Thalassery. The CPI(M) leaders had also participated in that. If RSS was keen to attack someone, why would we have conducted that peace discussion?" asked Advocate R Jayaprakash, district prachar pramukh, Kannur.
He added that the district administration took a laid back attitude whenever RSS leaders approached them to follow up on the peace discussions chaired by the Chief Minister at the collectorate a few months ago.
P Mohanan, Kozhikode district secretary of the CPI(M), said that the meet was an attempt to whitewash the atrocities carried out by the RSS workers in various parts of the country.
"The meeting should have been conducted in Haryana or Gujarat, where people are beaten to death in the name of eating beef. Kerala is a place where people of all religions and caste live in harmony, a place where no one is attacked in the name of their choices in life. In Kerala, a crime was never reported in the name of eating food of one's choice. If the RSS attempt was genuine, they should have first done it in any of the states in north India from where such crimes are frequently reported," he said.
When asked about the death of RSS worker Biju who was killed in May at Payyannnur in Kannur allegedly by CPI (M) workers Mohanan said that the party has disowned those who are accused in the crime.