Congress cautions CPI-M on 'politics of murder'

The Congress Saturday told the opposition CPI-M it would meet the same fate it has in West Bengal if it party does not desist from the "politics of murder" in the state.

"If they fail to change their approach and stop the politics of murder, then the party will end up the way it has ended up in West Bengal now," said State Congress president V.M. Sudheeran.

The top Congress leaders were all here to take part in a meeting of grassroot-level leaders meant to rejuvenate the party ahead of the next year's local body election.

The CPI-M in Kerala is known for its "aggressive dealing" with political adversaries, especially in the districts of Kozhikode and Kannur.

Early this month, RSS leader K.T.Manoj, one of the people accused of making an unsuccessful bid on the life of Kannur CPI-M district secretary P. Jayarajan in 1999, was hacked to death by a seven-member gang Sep 1 in the district.

"By now a few arrests in this case has taken place and from what one can make out from these arrests is that, the needle of suspicion again points towards the CPI-M," said Ramesh Chennithala.

"The politics of murder will not happen, the moment the CPI-M and BJP decide to end this," he added.

Sudheeran also found it surprising to hear from the CPI-M that the party is against paying the taxes (water tariff, land tax, registrations duty and stamp duty) which were hiked early this week.

"In order to shift the attention from the recent murder that took place at Kannur, the CPI-M is purposely trying to create unrest by organising the people against the recent tax hike. This is, however, not going to work," said Sudheeran.

Chennithala added that the Left government under V.S. Achuthanandan (2006-11) had hiked the water tariff by 100 percent.

The Left Democratic Front is meeting in the state capital Sunday to discuss and announce the details of the protest that they are going to launch against the hike in taxes.