Kodiyeri’s statement has come close on the heels of the arrest of two party workers in connection with Biju murder.

It is also in consonance with the the agreement signed between the CPI(M) and the RSS-BJP at a peace meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sometime back to end the cycle of violence which has vitiated Kannur.

“If party workers are found to have violated the decisions taken at the peace meeting, action will be taken against them,” said Kodiyeri in his statement which will go a long way in restoring peace in violence-torn Kannur. Kodiyeri also asked the party workers to exercise utmost restraint in the face of provocations.

Kodiyeri’s is the most positive statement emanating from the CPI(M) which, being the ruling party, has a special responsibility to implement the decisions taken by the Kannur peace agreement.

The CPI(M) must not stop at this. Kodiyeri must ask other party workers who have been named accused in the Biju murder and who are learnt to be hiding in ‘party villages’ to surrender immediately. The police have not raided these ‘party villages’ so far although they have information that the other accused in the case are hiding there.

This is also a golden opportunity for the CPI(M) to formally renounce political violence. The CPI(M) must adopt a resolution renouncing resort to violence to further political objectives both in the State Secretariat and State Committee. Such a decision will be a decisive step towards defusing CPI(M)-BJP-RSS tension. It will also mark a paradigm shift in CPI(M) politics, ending its alienation from a large section of the people.

The CPI(M)’s positive step is in glaring contrast to the conduct of state BJP leaders who have been making provocative statements. Leading the list is BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan himself, who had posted a video on his Twitter handle which shows CPI(M) workers celebrating the murder. Kannur police have registered a case against the state BJP chief following a directive from DGP T P Senkumar himself. A complaint against Kummanam had said that the video was aimed at spreading hatred among political partie and inciting BJP-RSS workers to violence.

As if taking a cue from his president, BJP’s Thiruvananthapuram district chief S Suresh also made a highly provocative speech. In his speech, Suresh said the BJP and RSS will be forced to search for the hands and heads of those who are behind the attack on RSS workers.

Earlier, Kerala Governor Sathashivam himself was at the receiving end of intemperate outbursts from state BJP leaders. The Governor’s crime: he simply refused to play the BJP’s game. What angered the BJP state general secretaries M T Ramesh and Shobha Surendran was the way the Governor handled a memorandum submitted by a delegation of BJP leaders demanding that Kannur be declared a disturbed area and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act(AFSPA) be imposed on the district.

While Ramesh was comparatively mild in his reaction – he said the JP did not need the Governor to act as a middleman to hand over the memorandum to the Chief Minister - Shobha bluntly asked the Governor to quit if he was scared of Pinarayi Vijayan. The statement caused widespread revulsion, forcing the state BJP leader and party’s lone MLA in the State Assembly O Rajagopal to disown the statement. It was not the party’s policy to seek removal of the Governor, Rajagopal asserted, exposing the faultlines in the state BJP. The central leadership also snubbed Ramesh and Shobha. Union Minister Raji Pratap Rudy went on record that the Governor did the right thing by forwarding the memorandum to the CMN seeking early action. But, despite the central rebuff, Shobha continues to be defiant. She has ruled out a retraction from her stand.

But, then, restraint has never been the strongpoint of a section of the state BJP leaders. Statements of the kind made by Shobha are in line with the BJP’s strategy of whipping up emotions and extracting political mileage therefrom. They have done it in the past, and would continue to do so in future as well unless there is a firm directive from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party boss Amit Shah. Will the duo rein in the hotheads? (IPA Service)