People's Democracy

Defenders Of The Republic

Suneet Chopra

IT is January 25. I am in Kannur to deliver a lecture on the eleventh death anniversary of SFI CEC member and Kerala state joint secretary, K V Sudeesh. Sudeesh was murdered on January 26, 1994 at Koothuparamba. His killers were trained murderers of the RSS who broke into his house at night like dacoits, cutting him up in over 30 pieces before his parents’ eyes, with his father and mother pleading with them to spare him and kill them instead. Later I was to meet his family in their simple home adorned with his photographs. They have moved away from Koothuparamba since, where a police firing on students protesting against the commercialisation of education took place on November 25, 1994, killing five SFI activists, Rajeevan, Madhu, Shibhulal, Roshan, and Babu. A sixth, Pushpan, has been completely paralysed for life.

What struck me was the date of Sudeesh’s murder. It was Republic Day. Surely no one would commit such a premeditated crime on the day India became an independent sovereign Republic? But then I remembered how it was an RSS cadre, Nathuram Godse, who had killed Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. The RSS has never recognised the secular republic that came into being on August 15, 1947. So January 26 was as good a day as any to do the dastardly deed.

What amazes one was how, when a patriot like A K Gopalan was imprisoned in Kannur Central Jail even on the day India became independent, cadres of the RSS were allowed to go about their task of spreading communal hatred and conducting carnages with impunity? But then, targeting the Left and turning a blind eye to the communal activities of the RSS has been a persistent trait of the Congress. I remember how I was in Patna the day Advani was arrested during his rath yatra that claimed thousands of innocent lives all over the country. The RSS was out in force, obstructing travelers and attempting to force them to say ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ When I refused to do so, an ugly situation might have developed, but seeing a comrade accompanying me with a lathi in his hand, the youths wearing saffron-bands were shooed away by an older man, saying, “Can’t you see they are travelers? Leave them alone”.

That day Advani was arrested by the Lalu Prasad Yadav government of Bihar and rushed to the West Bengal border in case of trouble in Bihar over the arrest. Not only did Congress chief ministers signally fail to stop Advani’s bloody journey but his arrest in Bihar was greeted with a sigh of relief by people all over the country. That the Congress could not act even in such conditions says a lot for its incapacity to lead the struggle to free secular India of the communal virus.

This became even more evident when the Babri Masjid was destroyed and a Congress government led by P V Narasimha Rao was in power at the centre. They just sat and watched the dastardly deed being done by goons of the RSS and Shiv Sena in full view of Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati and other top BJP leaders, while the BJP government of UP was allowed to resign on its own. In fact, it was a Congress government that first allowed installation of images over forty years earlier in the Mosque. It was also a Congress government that allowed these images to be worshipped once again. Even during the recent communal conflagration at Marad in Kozhikode district of Kerala, when both Hindu and Muslim communal forces were active in poisoning the atmosphere, the then chief minister of Kerala, A K Antony declared he was “helpless” in dealing with the situation. Obviously with such an attitude the Congress cannot be said to be capable of leading the defence of the secular fabric of our country. This naturally makes it all the more necessary that other forces, notably the Left, come forward to defend the secular fabric of our country and its unity.

This defence is very necessary for the well-being of our people, for scientific development requires that science be freed from the stranglehold of religion and its arbitrary dogmas to be able to truly benefit the masses and fulfil their needs. Moreover, India’s population may be poor but its large size allows its resources to be pooled and its security preserved. In fact, 170 years ago, Karl Marx noted in his writings on India that its unity was the prime condition for its progress and power. Today, with US imperialism waging wars across the Arabian sea in Iraq and in the Hindu Kush in Afganistan, the defence of both secularism and our unity have become even more crucial for our security. And the Left continues to play its most important role in defending both secularism and Indian unity with every ounce of the strength it has.

I visited Kannur Central Jail, where the Kayyur martyrs were held prisoner before they were hanged. Even today there are 35 prisoners there of the district units of CPI(M) and its mass organisations, nine facing death sentences and 26 serving life imprisonment for their role in defending the secular fabric of Indian society and the unity of the country. They are all young men. Those facing a death sentence are: Pradeepan, Sundaran, Dinesh Babu, Anil Kumar and Shaji sentenced in the Mokeri case involving the murder of RSS leader J Krishnan, said to be the mastermind behind the dastardly attempt to murder CPI (M) MLA, P Jayarajan, who has lost the use of a hand and a finger, but managed to survive against all odds. The others were sentenced in the Panniannur case involving the murder of P Chandran, the BJP district secretary who was himself involved in a number of murder cases and intimidation of witnesses. They are: Sukumaran, Purushottaman, Surendran and Preman.

As is often found in political cases, the evidence is flimsy and innocent comrades have been framed as they were effective activists in their areas. But their morale is high as that of front-line soldiers defending secularism and Indian unity should be. What is surprising is that there should be judges in the country who are prepared to sentence patriots defending these fundamental principles to death. We must do all we can to ensure that justice is done to them.

Also, we should write to them, send them books, diaries, pens and other writing materials. They eagerly follow events in the country and the Party’s activity. Pradeepan is a local committee secretary. Dinesh Babu is a poet who has published his poems in a number of magazines. There are nearly 60 such patriots in Kannur jail alone from the whole state of Kerala. We should do everything we can to make their lives bearable and creative. This is the least we can do for those who were prepared to sacrifice even their lives to defend the pillars on which our republic was built and on which it stands firm even today. They should be honoured and not punished.