Its been been more that 5 months since the incident that led a good friend of mine to write this interesting to this piece of blog(http://ottamyna.blogspot.com/2012/05/blog-post_19.html) occurred. We have seen events take the normal course, just like it has on many previous occasions, when something similar happened. This particular blog was a genuine and spontaneous reaction to a social evil but sadly the view is myopic.
Political killings are not patented by a single party in India. We just have to take a look at a few examples to understand the commonness of these killings. In fact the NHRC reports says that the ruling parties are responsible for more than 75% of extra judicial political killings. Just take a look at a few examples below
- Hundreds of of people were killed extra judicially by the Siddhartha Shankar Ray led govt in West Bengal from 1970-1977. The incumbent govt led by the INC lost the elections and this was one of the rare associations that the practice of extra judicial murder by political parties led to loss in elections.
- Vimadlal Commission exposed the role of the chief minister Vengala Rao of the Congress party during the emergency related killings in Andhra Pradesh. Similar to what happened in Bengal he lost the next election. Both the losses to the congress in the above two cases could be attributed to the effect of the emergency.
- Gujarat Riots and Anti Sikh riots after the killing of Indhra Gandhi- Even though these cannot be directly classified as political killings the primary effect of these killings were political gains for both the BJP and the Congress that went on to dominate the elections after that
Coming to Kerala, we are no strangers to political killings. Infact we are a society who not only tolerate political killings but probably encourage them as well.
- Rajan murder case should some bells to the writer. Senior leader Mr Karunakaran was indicted and had to resign. In fact it is widely believed that during the Emergency a systematic torture center was operational in the capital. Political opponents were screened, selected and targeted. Lot of political opponents disappeared and it was only the case of Rajan that came into the limelight. Strangely when all of India voted to keep Indhra Gandhi out of power, we voted Mr Karunakaran in. No high ranking political leader has been punished for the atrocities till now.
- Marad Killings- It is alleged that the Muslim League top leadership were either involved or atleast aware of the conspiracy. The effect is very clear to be seen. The Muslim League is the second largest party in the coalition now and we have conveniently decided to forget the past.
You can find references to many more in the blog of my good friend. What I meant by stating that the view expressed by the writer was myopic is that the aspect of the general public's attitude towards the conspirators has been ignored. About a month back I had been to Cochin and I saw huge posters of the industries minister P. K. Kunhalikutty along with the chief minister of Kerala on all the main roads in Cochin, in a show meant to welcome the delegates for the meet.
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I have no objections to the Industries minister hogging the limelight as he rightly should. Come to think of it in another way. A "rapist" was representing us to welcome delegates from abroad. Is our society so bad that we can't find good, clean and capable people to represent us and we are forced to elect rapists, murders and criminals.
One of my friends recently commented that P. K. Kunhalikutty is one of the best administrators around. The argument is in itself the answer to the argument. Karunakaran was a proven administrator. Pinaray is said to be even better. Modi is a step ahead of both. But what we tend to forget is that Hitler would easily trump them all. Being a good administrator is not a good enough reason for a criminal to be representing us. Just like Hitler, the three before them are not fit for representing us. People vote for P. K. Kunhalikutty because he can defeat the CPI(M). People vote for Pinarayi because he can defeat the Congress. People kept Hitler in power because they thought he can defeat his enemies. We are not voting to for a particular candidate or party because he is good and best suited for us. We are doing it because we want to defeat the other candidate and in that we tend to conveniently forget that we are voting for a rapist or a murderer.
People like P. K. Kunhalikutty, Pinarai and Karunakaran are (or) were mini Hitlers at some point of time in their careers and it is because they genuinely believed what they did was right.
We sided with them because we just wanted to defeat the other party. We never wanted to elect a representative for us. Unless that attitude changes, P. K. Kunhalikutty will be representing us and welcoming people from all over the world, Pinarayi will be hugely popular and after their death they will be given state honors and a 21 gun salute just like what was given to Karunakaran.
The rapist, the murderer, the evil in them will just go unpunished and we as a society are responsible for it.
As things stand it seems that the death of TP Chandrasekharan might go unpunished and the people ate the top of the conspiracy might go unpunished. This is not the first time it is happening and it will not be the last unless we change.
