Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was made to look like a lonely man in the Assembly on Monday for the arrest of two students in Kozhikode for alleged pro-Maoist deeds.
The opposition used the words of his allies to whip him politically. The UDF speakers in the Assembly on Monday held up the statements of CPI leaders, the editorial of CPI's mouthpiece 'Janayugam', and even the public stand of top CPM leaders, including ministers, to corner the chief minister on the issue. “It was for the first time in history that a CPM area committee had passed a stricture against its own chief minister," opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said. None of the CPI members or even the CPM ministers stood up in support of the chief minister.
A nonchalant chief minister expressed his party's ideological hostility to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, even termed it a “black law”. But there was nothing to suggest that he even remotely regretted the arrest of the two students. “The students were not arrested for protesting against the recent death of Maoists in police firing as is widely being propagated,” he said. A clear hint that the police had evidence of graver misdeeds. The opposition charge was that the students were arrested for having some “papers” with them.
He said the Police had found the students huddled in the “cover of darkness”. “One of them escaped and when the other two were questioned, they could not provide any clear answers,” he said.
Further, he said that Maoist literature were recovered from the shoulder bag of Alan Suhaib. He said that Thaha Fazal, the other accused, had raised pro-Maoist slogans when the police reached his house for search. The chief minister said that pro-Maoist banners were recovered from Thaha's house. A laptop and memory card, too, were seized but the chief minister did not say whether it contained any incriminating evidence.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that Alan Suhaib's family had strong CPM connections. “Thomas Isaac had gone to Alan's house. Ask him if the family has Maoist sympathies,” Chennithala told the chief minister. Isaac did not respond.
Nonetheless, the chief minister said that his government would not allow anyone to misuse UAPA. “We are seriously examining the issue,” he said.
Congress MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who sought leave to move an adjournment motion in the Assembly on the issue, wondered how a case that was already under the consideration of the court could now be reviewed. “How can the police examine whether the case will stand the test of law when the students have already been arrested,” he said.
Thiruvanchoor said that the chief minister was using “Amit Shah's amendment to slap cases on two DYFI workers”. The 2019 amendment to the UAPA had empowered the state to brand an individual as a terrorist.
Though he wanted a discussion on the arrests, Thiruvanchoor used the opportunity to question the Maoist deaths in Attappady. He liberally quoted the CPI leaders to hammer home his point. “The CPI's fact-finding team had said that Manivasakam's (the fourth Maoist to be killed in Attappady) feet was broken,” Thiruvanchoor said. “It can only mean that he was took into custody, tortured and then shot dead,” he said.
Thiruvanchoor repeated the CPI charge that evidence was cooked up to make a fake encounter look like an act of self defence. “If as the CPI says the evidence was concocted, has the government taken any action against responsible police officers,” he said.
The chief minister used up most of his time to argue that draconian laws like TADA, POTA and UAPA were the handiwork mostly of the Congress. “And when the BJP brought in an amendment to the UAPA, not a single Congress MP from Kerala spoke a word against it. It was CPM's lone member who put up fierce resistance,” the chief minister said.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, during his turn, put the record straight. “It was P Chidambaram who had put up the fiercest opposition to the UAPA amendment. It was he who said it was unconstitutional,” Chennithala said. “None of our MPs, as you had said, had voted for the amendment. We walked out, and the lone CPM member too came out with us. It were only the Muslim League members who had voted against the amendment,” he added. The chief minister sat smiling.
Once again, the chief minister did not hold back his deep distaste for Maoists. Last week, too, he had told the Opposition in the Assembly that the Maoists were no saints. “In 2012, it were these Maoists had killed over 130 CPM workers. In Bastar (Chattisgarh) in 2010, they had killed 75 CRPF men. In 2014, they killed 11 CRPF men and four policemen in Sukma (Chattisgarh). They had killed 14 villagers in Bihar,” Pinarayi said.
He also refuted the opposition charge that the Maoists were ready for surrender. “There are certain guidelines for surrender. None of these were followed,” he said.
The opposition leader but reminded the chief minister of a slice of history. Quoting from M V Raghavan's autobiography, Chennithala said that Raghavan and Pinarayi Vijayan were the only two comrades who supported T Nagi Reddy's call for people's rebellion during the 1968 meet of the party. “It is ironical that a comrade who had supported people's rebellion should arrest two students for possessing some papers,” Chennithala said.
Incidentally, Nagi Reddy was then ousted from the party. Raghavan and Pinarayi were spared.
