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Cracks in Sangh Parivar swallow RSS activist in Kerala

Venu Menon in Thiruvananthapuram

Subterranean tensions had already begun to dent the image of the Sangh Parivar in Kerala as a happy family where conflict of interest did not hamper peaceful co-existence. Last fortnight, those tensions seethed to the surface and the growing hostility between the BJP and the RSS burst into public.

In Kasargod district, an emerging Hindutva stronghold, an RSS instructor was stabbed to death and another injured on October 17 when a band of BJP workers, high on booze, attacked a shaka (branch). The incident plunged the Sangh Parivar leadership into the worst credibility crisis it has faced in recent years.

Twentytwo-year-old Udayakumar's killing, though not politically motivated, acquires political significance because it highlights the cracks in the Sangh Parivar edifice and the growing incompatibility between the RSS and its political cousin. The incompatibility stems from a clash of styles. The BJP cadres are becoming increasingly restive with RSS discipline and codes of conduct. In recent years, the party's ranks have swelled with members chosen for their combative spirit rather than political commitment -- a tactical line adopted by the leadership to counteract the Communist Party of India-Marxist hegemony in north Kerala.

Kasargod, the state's northernmost district bordering Karnataka, is a traditional battleground where the CPI-M and BJP cadres clash routinely. The human fodder in these political wars mainly comes from the agricultural workforces who are readily available for a price. Over the years, the BJP has inducted such mercenaries to fend off the belligerent CPI-M cadres, and substantially contributed to the criminalisation of politics in the area. CPI-M leaders say this process has permeated the RSS cadres as well.

At least two of the five BJP workers held for Udayakumar's killing are accused in earlier murder cases involving CPI-M cadres. In the aftermath of the latest killing, posters sprang up around Kanhangad town accusing a senior BJP leader of sheltering the culprits. Madakkai Kammaran, state BJP vice-president, has a dubious reputation in local political circles. The party's dominant flag-bearer in a traditional leftwing bastion, Kammaran is more amused than hurt by the charge that his minions carried out the fratricidal killing.

"The BJP and RSS are united. The recent incident happened when low class people drank too much and clashed with each other. It is not a case of infighting within the Sangh Parivar," Kammaran told this correspondent at the BJP office in Kanhangad.

This is also the Sangh Parivar's official stand. Following Udayakumar's murder, the BJP and RSS leadership quickly closed ranks. State BJP president C K Padmanabhan, vice-president Kammaran and RSS leaders Sethumadavan and T V Santhoshkumar sat together to defuse a tense situation that threatened to snowball into an embarrassing credibility crisis.

On the ground, tempers still simmered. Following the slaying, RSS cadres went on a rampage and torched the homes of BJP workers involved in the attack.

Still, the Sangh Parivar is keen to put a poker face on the crisis. This is apparent from the remarks of P V Mohan, the RSS activist who survived the knife attack that killed his colleague.

"The BJP workers were drunk. The incident was not the result of enmity between the BJP and RSS," he said nursing a heavily bandaged arm.

Not everyone is convinced. The feeling on the ground in Kasargod is that the criminal elements, who form the fighting arm of the BJP as well as the CPI-M, enjoy political patronage in both parties. Consequently, the political mercenary has become a runaway phenomenon in Kasargod and Kannur, the hotbeds of political turbulence. He is not amenable to controls by the political leadership and his activities have escalated the level of violence.

Leaders like Kammaran betray a thinly concealed sympathy for this element. Answering the charge of harbouring criminals, he observes: "Some of those involved in the recent incident are accused in other cases. This does not mean they are criminals. People are often picked up by the police as suspects even if they are innocent."

Over the past decade, the streets of Kasargod have been awash with the blood of warring cadres of the BJP-RSS combine on one side and the CPI-M on the other. On October 17, 1998, the Sangh Parivar drew its own blood. Its leaders are now trying to stifle the effects of that nightmare.

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