It is we who are the bigger victims in Kerala: CPI-M

In contrast to BJP and RSS claims that Kerala's ruling Marxists are on a killing spree, the CPI-M has said that it has lost more members to political violence than any other party in the state since 2000.

"The BJP, under the direction of the RSS, has begun an all-India campaign directed against the so-called violence of the CPI-M against the RSS-BJP workers," an editorial in the CPI-M journal People's Democracy said.

"But the concocted facts cannot be sustained. According to Kerala Police figures, between 2000 and 2017, 85 CPI-M workers were killed as against 65 of the RSS-BJP. These figures themselves reveal who has borne the brunt of the attacks," it said.

It said a RSS-BJP gameplan in Kerala had been unfolding after the BJP failed to make a significant impact in the May 2016 assembly election.

"It fell back on its longstanding method of launching violent attacks targeting CPI-M workers all across Kerala," it said.

"The outcry orchestrated by the RSS at the national level, about Marxist violence against the RSS-BJP workers, is an indication of its growing frustration at its inability to put the CPI-M on the defensive and to destabilize the functioning of the LDF government."

Pointing out the alleged corruption scandals that it said had engulfed the BJP state unit, the CPI-M claimed that it was to divert attention from this that the BJP-RSS had resorted to engineering clashes with the CPI-M.

"The killing of an RSS worker being blamed on the CPI-M has nothing to do with politics. It was a quarrel about control of a local market and the man who led the gang which committed the murder has no links with the CPI-M and has a known criminal record."

The editorial added: "The RSS should realize that its violent tactics will not work in Kerala."

--IANS

mr/ksk