RSS Outcry Over Violence in Kerala is a Subterfuge

Ever since the BJP managed to stitch up a coalition government with Nitish Kumar in Bihar, the Modi government and its toady corporate media has plunged into intense campaigning against the LDF government in Kerala led by the ailing parliamentary opportunist CPI(M), with an intention to impose president’s rule in the state and thereby seize the control of one of the crucial and rich states in South India and form its own government there with the help of money and muscle power.

Ever since the BJP was drubbed in the Kerala assembly election of 2016, the RSS intensified violent campaigns against the poor supporters of the CPI(M) throughout Kannur and even ventured down south to Thiruvananthapuram to create a nationwide propaganda over a purported “communist” violence. The violent confrontation between the two regimented outfits, one that pays lip service to Marxism and follows the neo-liberal economic agenda of the ruling classes of India unconditionally, and another, the unapologetic communal fascist outfit that wants to destroy the social harmony in India through its nefarious politics of hatred, started long ago in the 1970s and with numerous bodies piling in, especially of the CPI(M) cadres, the power conflict reached its highest peak since the LDF won victory in the 2016 election.

 

The violence was intensified deliberately by the RSS as despite spending a huge amount of money and doing extensive communal propaganda to spoil the electoral prospects of the parliamentary left, the BJP could only manage to win one seat out of 140 in the Kerala assembly. It understood that in a state with a significant Muslim, Christian and Dalit population, it needs external help in forming a government to fulfil Narendra Modi-Amit Shah’s mission of removing all opposition parties from governance by 2021. The external help, which the RSS functionaries and conspirators are expecting can only reach them if the Modi government can use the pretext of deteriorating law and order situation in the state to impose president’s rule and to hasten the process, the RSS and its toady media organisations have started a mass-opinion building movement throughout North and West India by their bogus campaigns over the purported violence unleashed against “Hindus” in Kerala, hiding the fact that the CPI(M) cadres, whom the RSS is killing incessantly, are also from the Hindu community itself.

The CPI(M), which has lost its bastion in West Bengal, a state that it ruled for 34 years, cannot afford to lose its foothold in the southern state where it has a long history of tryst with power and flirtation with the ruling bloc of feudal landlords, comprador crony capitalists and foreign monopoly capital. It’s trying to become one of the favourite “left” lieutenants of the foreign corporations once again after Buddhadev Bhattacharya made this pseudo-communist party a favourite lackey of the corporate houses between 2001-2007. Pinarayi Vijayan is attempting to be the red attire donning Man Friday of international monopoly-finance capital, Indian comprador crony capitalism and big feudal landlords  in God’s own country, hence, it’s imperative for him and his party to hold on to the strongholds of the party in rural Kerala, where the RSS men are killing the supporters of the LDF to wean away the mass support in its favour.

To ensure that its ailing body remains alive in Indian politics and it’s not washed away by high tides of anti-incumbency in one of its traditional strongholds, apart from politically non-relevant Tripura, the CPI(M) has employed a two-pronged strategy in dealing with the threat that is arising from a rabid Hindutva mob growing feral every passing day. On one hand, the party is trying to calm down the situation by diffusing tension in certain parts of the state, especially in Kannur, by organising discussions with the RSS and BJP top brass, while on the other hand, they are trying to protect their voter base by adopting pro-Hindutva stance in several areas to ensure that it can wean over a significant section of fanatic upper-caste Hindus into its fold from the Sangh Parivar to increase its poll prospects in the future. The CPI(M) flirted with the Roman Catholic Church and the Sunni organisations in the past to consolidate the particular religious vote banks and now it’s eyeing the majority Hindu votes by adopting some saffron tonality during religious festivals.

The CPI(M) and the LDF’s futile attempt to appease the BJP/RSS to safeguard its government from falling prey to an impending President’s Rule, will never bear any fruits as Nagpur and New Delhi are aligned on the strategy to destabilise and then topple with force any government that doesn’t include the BJP as a stakeholder and doesn’t share the booty with the saffron camp. Unlike Nitish Kumar and his party – JD(U), the RSS cannot liaison with the LDF or the CPI(M) as it has to show to the country and its youth that its ideological standpoint of Hindutva is powerful and stronger than that of its arch enemy, the communists, or their namesakes for that matter. So apart from promising the CPI(M) leaders and ministers that they will control their men and refrain them from stepping into any violent campaigns against the LDF supporters, the RSS top brass in Kerala will do nothing to stop the cycle of violence, which their supporters initiate deliberately.

The RSS is constantly hiring goons from the anti-social gangs in the state to carry on the rampage against the ruling party as well as to intimidate the people of the state by deteriorating the law and order situation. The Kerala Police, despite being under the LDF government, provides a free passage to the RSS goons from neighbouring Karnataka and far-off places like Maharashtra and Gujarat when they enter the hinterlands of Kerala to incite riots and violence. Since the LDF came to power, the Kerala police showed extra proactiveness in gunning down alleged Maoists trying to raise the demands of the marginal tribal and poor people of the state, but surprisingly, when it came to resisting the riot-monger RSS criminals, the Kerala police softened its stand and overlooked the criminal deeds of the gangsters working under the saffron bloc.

Kerala is one of the last states in India where the working class is still united and participates in large scale strikes to press their demands, which causes inconvenience to the Indian ruling classes and the foreign monopoly and finance capital. Though the CPI(M)-led LDF has attempted several times to blunt the sharp edges of militant struggle of workers and peasants in the state on behalf of the ruling classes, it failed drastically and even faced the threat of becoming politically extinct following the mass erosion of its support base due to the active campaigning by the progressive and revolutionary left forces in the state. This forced the CPI(M) and other constituents of the LDF to pay lip service to the cause of the working class, more to hoodwink the people than to actually support the class in its struggle against exploiters, and thereby ensured relatively more freedom for the working class agitators in the state than in neighbouring Tamil Nadu or Karnataka.

The BJP is promising the ruling classes that it can, once and for all, settle scores with the trade union and peasant movements and ensure that the peace of the graveyard prevails in Kerala, if it’s given a chance to rule the state. Despite Kerala doing better in terms of Human Development Index, sex ratio, education and crime rates vis a vis the BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the state is stigmatised and is portrayed in the darkest shades by the lackeys of the RSS in the media and social media. By spreading nasty rumours about Kerala, the RSS is also trying to diminish the business growth in the state and isolate the state and its people through an economic embargo so that a large section of the middle-class Malayalis, residents and non-residents of the state, can be hijacked through intense perception management campaigns to support the RSS’ demand for a President’s Rule in the state.

Kerala is providing the RSS with an opportunity to divert the national attention from Muslim and Dalit lynching carried out by its foot soldiers throughout the country to a non-issue of its hired hoodlums getting killed in factional feuds or in clashes with the LDF cadres, whom the RSS wants to eliminate physically. Whenever there is a nationwide stir over the issue of cow-related lynchings and violence by the Hindutva camp, the saffron camp will raise the placards of Kerala; ironically the RSS is the chief instigator of violence in Kerala and has killed more LDF supporters than the number of Hindutva goons who died during the retaliation by the CPI(M) cadres. The RSS leaders even called for the murder of Kerala’s chief minister and one even placed a bounty of ₹ 1 crore on his head. Still, neither the CPI(M)-led LDF government of Kerala nor the Modi government (for obvious reasons) took cognisance of the offence and booked the culprit.

By playing the victim card and by shedding crocodile tears the RSS and BJP top brass are actually trying to blame the anti-establishment voices for remaining silent over the purported “atrocities committed” against the Hindutva foot soldiers by “Jihadi” “Communist” terrorists. Arun Jaitley, the Defence Minister, used a special plane provided by the armed forces to reach Kerala to console the family members of a slain RSS goon, who was, according to the statement of his parents, killed in a gang war. Spending money from public exchequer the minister is consoling bereaved family members of goons killed in a gang war. What would have been the repercussions if an opposition leader would have consoled the family members of a notorious criminal killed in a gang war spending public money? Wouldn’t these same trolls who are flooding social media with their sham tears for the slain RSS goons bayed for the blood of those leaders for such wastage of public money then?

Despite these attempts to malign the democratic voices of the country and call them names, including “anti-national” and “pro-Jihadi”, the BJP and the RSS failed to evoke any mass response in its favour due to the massive isolation it’s facing from the oppressed sections of the population, who indeed are the majority of the country’s population. The militant farmers movement of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the strong working-class movement that is threatening to rock New Delhi in November, the movements of the Dalits, tribal people and the oppressed nationalities are pushing the BJP towards the wall, though the Hindutva lapdog media would portray the BJP driving an unstoppable cavalcade of victory.

As a frustrated and isolated RSS and BJP resorts to slur mongering against the people of Kerala and the Malayali culture, including their food habits, the people get infuriated and even when a large number of the people are not LDF supporters, they come out and spontaneously protest against the Hindutva camp’s attempt to change the social fabric of the state. The gradually growing anger of the Malayali people has isolated the BJP and the RSS and brought down the reliability ratings of their associated news channels on social media. The BJP’s poll share in the recent municipal election also came down heavily and the party lost them very badly.

The furious Malayali people, seeking to avenge the humiliation of their native land by the BJP and the RSS, is signalling that the propaganda over the purported “killing of RSS members” in Kerala, is fast losing base in the very state where the BJP and the RSS wants the Hindutva banner to be unfurled, unchallenged, in the near future. The good news is, the more a fascist outfit gets down the alley of frustration the more political blunders it is prone to commit and therefore, the RSS and its affiliates will create the perfect situation, where not only the people of Kerala but the people of India will also drub them through strong democratic movements and struggles.