THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM initiative to discuss Kannur violence with BJP-RSS across the table is perhaps borne out of the realisation that Sangh Parivar campaign against the party at national level could prove costly in the longer run. The Sangh Parivar had launched a methodical campaign in Delhi accusing CPM and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan of orchestrating violence in Kannur. Ahead of the recent violent demonstrations against the chief minister in Delhi and Bhopal, the BJP-RSS combine had organised exhibition in national Capital depicting CPM violence in Kannur.
CPM too had held a similar exhibition exposing the ghastly acts of RSS. Every time a BJP or RSS man got killed, the Sangh Parivar made it a point to launch a propaganda against CPM. The Modi government also targeted LDF government accusing it of failing to maintain law and order. At a time when the CPM is desperate to project LDF government as an alternative model before the country especially after the huge setback in West Bengal, the negative propaganda was proving to be damaging. Though the BJP-RSS activists are also involved in the killings of CPM workers, owing to their limitations the Marxists have not been able to make it a national issue.
The leaders of CPM and BJP now realise that “tit for tat” killings are not going to take them anywhere. The ghastly killings in Kannur are also creating widespread aversion among the common people against politics of murder. Perhaps all these factors prompted the CPM and BJP to hold negotiations on such a sensitive issue. CPM and BJP seems to have climbed down from their strident position on the killings for the moment. Only recently it had accused the RSS-BJP of unleashing series of violence across the state with the objective of painting Kerala as a state with serious law and order problems. Similarly the BJP and RSS had also accused the chief minister of presiding over the attacks on Sangh Parviar.
