Accused in the hit-and-run case that killed Malayalam journalist KM Basheer, Sriram Venkitaraman is now a poster boy for right-wing groups.
Sriram Venkitaraman taking charge as Alapuzha district collector. (South First)
The Sriram Venkitaraman imbroglio haunting Kerala’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) government for more than two weeks is now being given a communal twist, with right-wing groups conducting intense social media campaigns describing the controversial civil service officer as a devote Brahmin targeted by Muslim fundamentalist outfits.
Venkitaraman’s recent appointment as a collector with magisterial powers and law-and-order management rights, despite being the prime accused in an infamous hit-and-run case that resulted in the death of Malayalam journalist KM Basheer, had evoked large-scale resentment.
Journalists across the state organised protests under the Kerala Union of working journalists (KUWJ) banner and burnt Venkitaraman’s effigy at several places. The Congress declared it would boycott his official functions, and greeted him with black flags when he assumed charge.
Bowing to intense pressure from the main Opposition party and journalists, the LDF on Monday, 1 August, removed Venkitaraman from the post of Alappuzha district collector, barely a week after he took charge, and appointed him managing director of the Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation.
What prompted the right-wing groups to give a communal twist to the episode was that the state witnessed mammoth protest marches under the aegis of the Kerala Muslim Jamaat in the run-up to Venkitaraman’s removal.
The Jamaat and its top leader Kanthapuram Abubacker Musaliyar, who owns the Siraj newspaper that employed Basheer, had warned the LDF government of severe repercussions if Venkitaraman was allowed to continue in the position.
The marches comprised hundreds of participants from Sunni Muslim outfits like the Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS) and Sunni Students Federation (SSF).
On 3 August 2019, Venkitaraman’s friends organised a cocktail party in his honour at a guest house for civil service officers in the tony Kowdiar area of Thiruvananthapuram.
After the party, Venkitaraman and a friend, Wafa Firoz, are said to have engaged in driving under the influence of alcohol.
The speeding car lost control and hit the two-wheeler on which Basheer was returning home, resulting in the death of the journalist.
The accident and a subsequent police probe had led to widespread resentment against the government, which allegedly took a tacit stand favouring Venkitaraman. Along with murder charges, he faces the charge of destroying evidence.
Though suspended from service after the incident, he was reinstated in March 2020 and held the post of joint secretary in the Department of Health and Social Justice, much to the public’s chagrin.
Though he obtained bail in the case in the First Class Magistrate Court in October 2020, the trial is on.
After Venkitaraman’s removal from the collector’s post, BJP state president K Surendran started communalising the whole affair by accusing the LDF of “succumbing to the pressure of organised forces”.
He alleged that the government had bowed to organised fundamentalist forces, and thus sent a wrong message to the public. “It was a cowardly act,” he said.
Hindu Makkal Katchi leader Arjun Sampath’s tweet against the Muslims who held the procession opposing the “Brahmin IAS collector” of Alappuzha went viral on Tuesday.
The tweet was silent on some aspects of the incident because the protesters against Venkitaraman comprised Congress workers and journalists.
It also glossed over the fact that the protest was against the appointment of a murder-accused as a district collector with magisterial powers.
The Democratic Christian Federation Kerala, a little-known Christian fundamentalist group, also used social media to condemn the protest by Muslims against Venkitaraman.
The post said it was not the first time a journalist had been killed in a road accident, and that religious extremism had forced Muslim outfits to demand action against the district collector.
CASA, another Christian group infamous for social media posts promoting Islamophobia, said that what prompted the Muslim organisations’ agitation was not that Venkitaraman drove in an intoxicated condition and killed someone but that the deceased belonged to their community.
“The dead person is a Muslim, a sympathiser of terrorist groups. Sriram is a Brahmin, a Hindu man. So here, the protest is against religion. Our collective power threatens them; it’s not a protest for a social cause, [sic]” said another Facebook post.
“It’s quite unfortunate that the issue is now taking a communal colour,” said KUJW president KP Reji.
“The newspaper in which Basheer worked was not a communal one. No law prevents Muslim organisations from running newspapers in the country. And in the case of Basheer, he had an inclusive and secular vision,” he added.
“It’s quite painful that leaders like Surendran are twisting facts and adding a communal colour to a set of protests seeking justice,” said Reji.
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