The Big Story: Jaitley sees red

After yet another Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker was killed in Kerala, Union Minister Arun Jaitley voiced his outrage. Having visited the family of the murdered worker, he said the wounds on his body “would have embarrassed even terrorists”. Political violence in Kerala had spiked under the Communist Party of India (Marxist) government, which was bent on annihilating its political enemies, he claimed, and had this happened in states ruled by the National Democratic Alliance, awards would have been returned. Such violence would not, he added, “suppress ideology” or “scare our workers”. Worrying though political violence in Kerala is, Jaitley’s comments seemed rooted in feeling rather than fact, delivered with the fervour of a party functionary rather than the concern of a veteran statesman.

To begin with, his projection of a Sangh Parivar under siege and in danger of being wiped out by the ruling party is misleading. For years, the state, especially Kannur district in north Kerala, has been the site of a pitched battle between the Left and the Sangh Parivar. This contest grew keener after the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, when the BJP’s vote share shot up by nearly 4%, and with the assembly elections of 2016, it climbed to 14.6%. Casualties have been roughly equal on both sides. Between 2000 and 2016, Kannur reported 69 political murders. Of these, 31 workers belonged to the Sangh Parivar, 30 to the Left and the rest to other parties. In 2016, the Left lost three workers and the Sangh Parivar four. Besides, the violence seems to have peaked in 2008, when 12 political workers lost their lives.

That this culture of political violence should be so entrenched and go unchecked reflects a failure on the part of successive state governments. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan did convene an all-party meeting on Sunday, but apart from token reassurances about keeping the peace, the government seemed more agitated about the “campaign” to paint Kerala as a “strife-torn state”.

As a senior minister at the Centre, Jaitley could have risen above party lines and called for calm on both sides. Instead, he openly sided with the RSS and its ideology, giving up the careful distance that the BJP high command has usually maintained in public. He resorted to a politics of victimisation that has become popular with the Right, declaring that states ruled by the BJP would have faced a backlash while communist Kerala got away with murder. He also dug up an old grievance against the “award wapsi” in 2015. In the wake of the Dadri lynching and the murders of rationalists, writers, artists and other eminent personalities had returned government awards to protest against the rising tide of intolerance. Jaitley had then dubbed it a “manufactured rebellion”, hinting darkly at some sort of Left-liberal conspiracy “aimed at defaming the nation”.

Back then, his comments had reflected the mindset of an autocratic government bent on lashing out at adversaries rather than addressing genuine concerns. Now, they do nothing to reassure the public that his government is committed to keeping the peace rather than scoring political points.

The Big Scroll

TA Ameerudheen reports on the return of political violence in Kannur.

Punditry

  1. In the Indian Express, Yubraj Ghimire writes warily of China’s overtures to Nepal, even as Indian and Chinese armies face off at Doklam.
  2. In the Hindu, Maya John argues for a labour law for domestic workers.
  3. In the Telegraph, Manini Chatterjee on the defeat of Gopalkrishna Gandhi in the contest for the vice president’s post.

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