The much-hyped Nava Kerala Sadas continues to initiate debates on police accountability and the highhandedness of the ruling party's youth wing.
Vijayan in his Nava Kerala Bus. (Supplied)
It’s been almost a week since Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his entire Cabinet traversed 140 Assembly constituencies in the state in a chocolate-brown Mercedes-Benz bus, as part of a first-of-its-kind public outreach programme — Nava Kerala Sadas (NKS). However, its ramifications continue to stir up contentious political debates in Kerala.
The latest to invite sharp criticism from both the Opposition and civil society is the decision of the government to honour the police officials who extended security cover to the event with Good Service Entry (GSE) certificates.
According to government sources, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) MR Ajith Kumar has given instructions to District Police Chiefs (DSPs) and Deputy Inspector Generals (DIGs) in his capacity as officer-in-charge of law and order in the state to award GSE certificates to law enforcers who did a “remarkable performance” in maintaining law and order when the Cabinet travelled, by a special bus, through the state for 36 days — starting from 18 November.
The order has raised many eyebrows as police excesses remained almost a routine against those who protested against the Chief Minister, mainly by engaging in peaceful modes like waving black flags, during the journey. The general trend saw the police capturing the protestors and leaving them exposed to group violence involving cadres of the ruling CPI(M) and its youth wing, DYFI.
At Kalliasseri, in CPI(M)’s heartland of Kannur, black flag-waving Youth Congress workers were hit by DYFI workers with potted plant, iron rods, and helmets, causing serious head injuries. And it all happened under the close watch of a strong police force, ensuring high security to Vijayan and his Cabinet.
When the media approached Vijayan seeking his response on how the party’s youth wing was taking the law into their own hands, leaving the police mute victims, he responded unusually. Vijayan termed the Youth Congress protest against him a suicidal attack and claimed that the DYFI cadres were conducting a life-saving operation.
The CPI(M) politburo member added that the same kind of “life-saving operations” would be continued in other parts of the state, if necessary.
The attack, police inaction, and the Chief Minister’s distortion of facts have invited wide outrage from the Opposition and civil society.
Gunman of Vijayan beat protestors with sticks in Alappuzha. (Supplied)
Since then, several similar incidents have occurred as the NKS moved from one district to another.
In Alappuzha, Vijayan’s gunman jumped out from his vehicle and beat up black flag-waving Youth Congress protesters brutally. The attack had taken place after the protesters were caught by the police and kept under their control. The police did not move a finger to stop the gunman; they had the limited role of ensuring personal security of the Chief Minister.
On another occasion, a physically-challenged Congress protestor was brutally attacked by the police. Wherever black-flag-waving protestors were handled mercilessly by DYFI activists, the police remained either inactive or silent.
In Kollam, DYFI workers attacked Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha workers, with the police refusing to disperse the rival gangs.
Television images of police helping DYFI workers attack protestors. (Asianet)
In Kozhikode, a senior police officer allegedly squeezed the neck of a protester tightly, despite the victim suffering pain and suffocation.
In Thiruvananthapuram, a police vehicle ran over a Youth Congress protester’s leg, causing it to break. Though the government refused to take action against the erring police officials, some of the victims of the violence approached courts and won favourable directives.
Now, the GSE issue is courting controversy, while the same police are pressured by court orders to register cases against those who took the law into their own hands as part of the journey.
According to Opposition leader VD Satheesan, the GSE proposal is nothing but a “thanksgiving” by the Chief Minister for brutally attacking the peaceful protesters. He said that such recognitions would escalate police atrocities against ordinary people who would resort to peaceful protests in the future.
Interestingly, Vijayan and his party have inherited a dubious legacy of waving black flags against ministers and others who occupy positions of power, apart from waylaying them on policy or administrative matters.
Till Vijayan assumed power seven years ago, for the first time, the CPI(M) had dubbed the waving of black flags as a normal mode of peaceful protest. Now, those who have been arrested for waving black flags against the Chief Minister are charged with attempted murder, along with other strenuous clauses of the Indian Penal Code.
Sarcastic comments doing the rounds in the state say that “life-saving operation” has replaced the phraseology “attack against the protesters”.
Thalassery-based legal expert T Asaf Ali quotes the police manual to say that facilitating such criminal elements within the police with recognition would send a wrong message to society and policing.
In the meantime, those who critically debate the outcome of the NKS have started quoting a CPI(M) supporter in Kannur who approached the Chief Minister during the NKS seeking a considerable reduction in the interest and penal interest accrued on his defaulted housing loan.
The applicant had availed a loan from a local cooperative bank on the home turf of Vijayan and the dues have now gone up to ₹3,97,731. He submitted a petition at the counter set up at the venue of the NKS in his Assembly
constituency, seeking government intervention to reduce the amount.
On 26 December, he received a letter from the cooperative department saying that it permitted a concession of ₹515 on the loan liability, and the rest must be paid immediately.
Pinarayi Vijayan at NKS. (Supplied)
Youth Congress state president Rahul Mamkootathil quipped that the petitioner could purchase an apartment and a car with the discount granted to him. Former MLA VT Balram asked the petitioner whether he was not happy over getting the “maximum concession” from the cooperative bank in the Chief Minister’s home district.
While the Chief Minister and the ruling front are trivialising all the allegations as creations of the Opposition and the mainstream media, what turned out to be a serious shock for the ruling dispensation was a plain speech by veteran CPI(M) leader and former minister G Sudhakaran.
Known for his integrity, the party strongman from Alappuzha said, during a book release function on 26 December, that nobody can grow the party by hitting the face of the opponent or by letting loose a reign of terror by the police.
“No one can strengthen the party by promoting a coterie of supporters. The party must be acceptable to those outside the party setup, too. Only then will we win elections to the Assembly,” he said.
“Communists, who were 12 percent (of the total electorate), have now been reduced to 2.5 percent in the country. In Kerala, the number is 47 percent. So it is better to work patiently with the understanding that the movement needs to go a long way without the pride that we are above everything. Every word and deed should be good. Slapping the Opposition across the face is not revolution,” warned Sudhakaran.
In the meantime, the government has decided to showcase the chocolate-coloured luxury bus used for the NKS as an object for public viewing in Thiruvananthapuram for the time being. Then, it would be available for rent for weddings, pilgrimages, and entertainment events.
However, another matter is whether the NKS achieved its aim of sensitising people in the state about the Union government’s discriminatory attitude towards Kerala. During the journey, Vijayan persistently argued that if his government could not pay even welfare pensions for a few months, it was only because the Union government was not providing Kerala with its due.
During his NKS speeches, Vijayan reeled out the various big-ticket development projects initiated by his government: Digital Science parks, hill and coastal highways, Kochi-Bengaluru industrial corridor, Gift City, K-Fon,
Wayanad Tunnel Road, the Virology Institute.
“The Centre does not want any of this to happen and they are stifling us by depriving us of even the money we are eligible for,” the Chief Minister told his audience.
During his NKS concluding speech at Vattiyoorkavu in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, Vijayan said the initiative won the enormous goodwill of the state’s people. “Among the massive crowds that arrive to greet us, there would be one or two waving black flags. But the people, even while enthusiastically greeting us, would look at these flag wavers in amusement. Such was the restraint shown by the people,” he claimed.
Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, on the other hand, said that there was a breakdown of law and order in Kerala during the journey, an ominous statement given his present equation with the Chief Minister.
Though he had reserved the worst contempt for the Youth Congress and KSU “suicide squads”, Pinarayi was all praise for DYFI and SFI activists who had taken on the Governor. Blissfully unaware of the irony and perhaps even a potential constitutional danger, he called them prospects.
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