CPM sees red as Kerala CM jets to Kanhangad to honour TP murder case prosecutor

Kasaragod: Today, after the cabinet meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will board a flight to Kannur and will be driven to Kanhangad in Kasaragod district for a book release.

After the event, the CM will return to the capital. He has no other programme scheduled in Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

The effort Pinaryi is taking to attend the event has enraged CPM workers in both districts.

For, the book is the autobiography of former state vice-president of the Congress and ace criminal lawyer C K Sreedharan (77).

As the special public prosecutor in the political murder case of CPM rebel leader T P Chandrasekharan (52), Sreedharan secured the conviction of 12 accused, at least three of them CPM grassroots leaders.

When Chandrasekharan was hacked to death on May 4, 2012, Pinarayi Vijayan was the CPM's state secretary.

Cut to March 23, 1987. Suspected Congress workers burned and hacked to death five CPM activists on the Assembly election polling day. The CPM always cites the Cheemeni massacre as an example of the Congress' brutality.

But in that case, Sreedharan defended 53 Congress workers and secured the acquittal of all of them.

The two cases find a prominent place in the 240-page autobiography titled: 'Adv C K Sreedharan: Jeevitham, Niyamam, Nilapaadu' (Adv C K Sreedharan: Life, Law, Stance'). It is published by Muslim League leader M K Muneer's Olive Publications.

"Cheemeni and TP cases are undoubtedly the golden feathers in my cap," Sreedharan told Onmanorama.

The golden feathers make the CPM workers and leaders see red. "We have got directions to attend the event. But why should we go?" said a CPM worker in Thalassery.

A senior leader of the CPM in Kasaragod said the party would "cooperate" with the event "because the chief minister is attending".

"But the question you (the media) should be asking Sreedharan is why did he not invite any top Congress leaders to the function," the CPM leader said.

The function, in which Sreedharan will also be felicitated for his long public life, will be held outside the town hall in Kanhangad. "Inside, there is space only for 500 people. Since the chief minister is coming, there will be a much larger crowd," he said.

According to Congress sources, Sreedharan has his axe to grind. After K Sudhakaran became the Congress state president, Sreedharan was not only dropped as the vice-president of the party but also as a member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).

Kasaragod district has 12 blocks and Sreedharan was representing the Udma block in the KPCC for a long time. But Sudhakaran replaced him with former Kasaragod District Congress Committee president Hakeem Kunnil. "So he could not vote in the Congress presidential election," said a confidant of Sreedharan.

He said Sreedharan met the chief minister after CPM leader Kodieryi Balakrishnan's funeral and invited him to the event. Thalassery MLA and Speaker A N Shamseer was also at the meeting. Sreedharan is organising a reading session of his autobiography in November and Shamseer is likely to be the chief guest. "What I understand is the CPM's top leadership wants Sreedharan by their side," the confidant said.

That sentiment may not be shared by the leaders and workers at the district level. And there are historical reasons for it.

In the June 1991 Assembly election, Congress leader K Karunakaran fielded C K Sreedharan against chief minister E K Nayanar in Trikaripur constituency, which includes Cheemeni village. "Karunakaran was rewarding me for getting the Congress workers acquitted in the Cheemeni case. Five people were killed in broad daylight on election day. Not a kid was convicted," Sreedharan told Onmanorama.

(To be sure, three of the accused were later hunted down and killed allegedly by CPM workers.)

Sreedharan's candidature in Trikaripur in 1991 galvanised the CPM cadre. The party vowed to improve the victory margin. In 1987, E K Nayanar won the seat by 6,417 votes.

Graffiti and banners saying 'no vote for the saviour of Cheemeni murder case accused' came up across the constituency, Sreedharan said.

Though Karunakaran-led UDF won the 1991 assembly election with 90 seats, Sreedharan lost to Nayanar by 14,332 votes.

He was not disheartened by the defeat because Trikaripur has always been a Left bastion. The election defeat that "upset" him was the one he faced in Udma, his home constituency in Kasaragod district, in 2001. Since 1991, the constituency has been with the CPM. "When my turn came in Udma, the IUML had split because of the demolition of Babri Masjid and the newly formed Indian National League (INL) sided with the CPM, weakening the UDF in Udma. That defeat upset me," he said. He lost Udma by 9,664 votes.

Sreedharan had nursed a faint hope of winning because Udma and neighbouring Hosdurg constituencies were once a stronghold of the Praja Socialist Party (PSP), sending stalwarts such as N K Balakrishnan and Advocate K Chandrasekharan to the Assembly.

Sreedharan cut his political teeth in the socialist party, starting as a student leader.

When K Chandrasekharan became the law and revenue minister in the Pattom Thanu Pillai's ministry in 1960, he sanctioned a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) court in Hosdurg. "That court had jurisdiction from Manjeshwar to Taliparamba. There was no other SDM court nearby. It was K Chandrasekharan's gift to his constituency," said Sreedharan. He started practising law in that court, going on to make a name as an ace criminal lawyer in the state.

On the political front, he was the state joint secretary of the Socialist Party, and worked with socialist leaders such as finance minister P K Kunju 'Sahib' -- who introduced the Kerala State Lottery in 1967 -- Arangil Sreedharan, P R Kurup, N K Balakrishnan, N K Seshan, and K Chandrasekharan.

"Back then Praja Socialist Party was a dominant party in the state. Pattom Thanu Pillai became the second chief minister of Kerala in 1960 through PSP," he said.

The party started disintegrating in the late 1960s. In 1969, E M S Namboodiripad had to resign as chief minister for the second time after his coalition split, and C Achutha Menon got to head the interim government.

Prof N K Seshan of the Samyukta Socialist Party was made the finance minister in the interim government. This was opposed by party strongman P R Kurup, leading to a split in the party.

N K Balakrishnan and the then Thiruvananthapuram MP P Vishwambaran walked out and revived the PSP. Sreedharan stood with Balakrishnan and was made the party's state joint secretary.

In the 1970 election, the PSP got three seats. Party president Attingal Gopala Pillai, G Kuttappan (Nemom), and N K Balakrishnan (Hosdurg) were elected as MLAs.

The 11-member parliamentary board of the PSP voted 7-4 in favour of Balakrishnan to become the minister in the Achutha Menon cabinet. "But party president Attingal Gopala Pillai opposed the decision and ousted Balakrishnan and me from the party," Sreedharan said.

"But we did not back off. I, as joint secretary of the party, called a party meeting in Kannur Town Hall and we removed Attingal Gopala Pillai from the party," he said, bursting into a guffaw. "I got this political training then itself. I was around 29 years then," he said, chuckling.

But that was the end of PSP's glorious ride in Kerala.

In 1977, Congress leader K Karunakaran, who was then the home minister, sent finance minister Dr K G Adiyodi to Sreedharan's office. "The leader wanted me to join the Congress," he said.

Sreedharan told Adiyodi that he could take a decision only after consulting with his party workers in Udma. "Adiyodi said let's go together to Udma and we addressed PSP workers the same evening in Udma," he said.

Soon, Sreedharan announced the merger of PSP with the Congress.

The Congress organised a merger convention in Kannur. "Guess who was there to welcome us into Congress? West Bengal's chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray," he said.

There were three ministers, too, at the convention: home minister K Karunakaran, civil supplies minister Paul P Mani and finance minister Dr K G Adiyodi. "It's been 45 years in the Congress," he said.

When asked if Pinarayi Vijayan will be the second chief minister to change the course of his political life, he resorted to his trademark hearty laugh. "Nah. This is just a book launch and an event to felicitate me," he said, without any conviction.