Kerala: TP murder lands CPM in hot water


KANNUR: As the needle of suspicion turned to the CPM, barely a day after the brutal murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrasekharan, the ‘Kannur connection’ of the ‘murder most foul’ has landed the party in deep trouble. Despite the hasty attempts made by the leadership to wash its hands off the brutal killing of a promising Communist leader, a major section of the peace-loving rank and file of the party had refused to swallow the official version of the party that it was just another ‘quotation killing’ possibly operated by the UDF in the state. The damage-control exercise launched by the party in the wake of the murder, amidst a resounding voice of accusations, had made the party further ridiculous.
The allegation made by CPM district secretary P Jayarajan  that Kerala Congress leader P C George was behind the  conspiracy to murder T P Chandrasekharan turned out to be the biggest joke of the year. It is interesting to note that the CPM district secretary made the accusation against the Kerala Congress while addressing a public meeting here on Sunday to dispel the alleged ‘vicious campaign’ against his party in connection with the murder of the RMP leader.

Jayarajan’s reason to point the accusing finger on P C George was that the latter was  in the Thalassery on non-official visits to the region two months ago. Jayarajan’s position turned further embarrassing as Home Minister Thiruvanchur Radhakrishnan stated that “let him come with details and that too would be probed.”
Turning the position of the CPM leadership further precarious, not many among the rank and file are ready to buy the leaderships’ explanation on the incident. Said a party worker who wasn’t willing to mention his name, “the party leadership seems to have much to hide on the issue.”
Already on the dock in two other recent political  murders in the district, the first one that of an NDF worker, Fazal, at Thalassery, being investigated by the CBI, and the other of a Muslim League worker, Shukoor, at Pattuvam in Taliparamba, the CPM leadership would find it hard to wriggle itself out of the latest charge of  culpability in the murder of the party renegade and popular leader at Onchiyam.
A march to the office of the CBI in Kochi was CPM’s way of reacting to the arrest of its workers in connection with the NDF youth, while the party is yet to evolve a strategy to deal with the Shukoor murder. CPM workers’ role in the murder of Chandarasekharan is yet to be established.
A few hints dropped by the  Special Investigating Team of the police are all that is available now. But, what worries the leadership of the party now is the overwhelming wave of sympathy that swept the state following the murder, and the massive gatherings of people turned up to pay their last tributes to the slain Communist leader, reminding one of the demise of a national leader.

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