Our Communist Barbarians

By M.V. Kamath

All literate people in India have no doubt heard of the gruesome murder of the Australian missionary, Staines, and his two young children, in the heart of a jungle in Orissa. The van in which all three were sleeping was set on fire and they could not escape.

The heinous act was attributed to one Dara Singh and rumours were floated that he had subterranean connection with the Bajrang Dal. The man has not yet been caught. The Orissa Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik was eased out by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and replaced by a tribal leader Giridhar Gomango. But neither under Patnaik's nor under Gomango's regime has Dara Singh been arrested. Orissa, it is necessary to remember, is ruled by a Congress government.

Some months later, a Christian missionary, Arun Doss also came to a gruesome end in the jungles. It is said that a group of tribals killed him with arrows. There was an uproar in the country. National newspapers wrote stinging editorials condemning the Sangh parivar which was held responsible for all the murders. In an excess of liberal zeal, the CPM Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu described the parivar in general and the BJP in particular as barbaric.

Press too quiet for comfort

During that period a BJP party member, and a woman besides, was torched to death in broad daylight in south 24 Paraganas by Communist goons. There was deadening silence among our intellectuals. The national papers also maintained a remarkable silence. Not long afterwards a couple, allegedly with BJP affiliations, was also attacked and the woman of the house was literally slaughtered right in front of her husband.

A maid who tried to rush to the succour of her mistress had her fingers chopped. Once again the national press remained silent. Comrade Jyoti Basu had lost his tongue. Both these incidents - murders - took place in West Bengal, the citadel of the CPM and other Left-wing forces, just as the murder of Staines took place in Orissa under the dubious rule of the Congress.

In recent times, in the Kunnoor district of Kerala, another citadel of the CPM, an even worse incident took place. This was described in an editorial page article in the respectable The Hindu (9 Dec.). The article said: "A dozen persons armed to the teeth with swords, axes and country bombs crash into the classroom of an upper primary school in broad daylight. They hack, cut and stab the teacher in full view of innocent children until he falls down. The blood from his body spatters on the books and dresses of the horrified children who run out screaming.... The victim of the gory drama was the teacher and State Vice-President of the Yuva Morcha, K.T. Jayakrishnan...."

The Yuva Morcha is a BJP organisation. There has been no hue and cry in our national press so far. No condemnation of the CPM or its leaders. Neither the murderers of the West Bengal ladies, nor those who brutalled hacked to pieces the teacher in Kunnoor district in Kerala have so far been traced.

And one can be assured, they never will be. Under the Communists murder is a legitimate weapon to silence opponents.

Why was Jayakrishnan killed? The answer is plain. He was operating in what has long been considered a CPM stronghold. The Communists do not want any other party to operate where they are allegedly in a majority. Their kingdom is sacrosanct. The truth of the matter is that the Communists are rapidly losing popularity both in West Bengal and in Kerala. They are on the run.

And they can't withstand popular anger. Soon after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance came to power in Delhi the CPM goons in Kunnoor district in Kerala "virtually minced to death in the presence of his wife and children" the Kunnoor district secretary of the BJP, one Panyannur Chandran. There was not a word of protest from our liberal intellectuals.

Left activities are inhuman

No editorials condemned these brutal killings executed by CPM thugs. Not a dog barked. The Christian Church which was so vociferous over the killing of Staines has been remarkably silent. Cruelty is cruelty, whether one person is killed or two or three or whether one is torched or hacked to pieces in broad daylight. There is no gradation of pain in these circumstances.

But consider the hypocrisy of our intellectuals. When the Christian Missionary Staines and his children were killed, the liberal press rose in anger in one voice. When half a dozen BJP workers got killed also brutally - and in front of horrified children - there has not been even a whimper of protest.

It shows a mentality that is sick. In Kerala, one must admit, an aroused BJP paid the CPM in the same coin. Kunnoor has become a battlefield of ideologies. According to the CPM, it is wrong on the part of the Sangh Parivar to burn down churches set up in tribal areas against the wishes of the Hindu population. But the CPM is loath to apply the rule to itself. It wants to treat Kunnoor district as its own fief and boo to anyone who wishes to barge in, like the RSS.

West Bengal, like Kerala, is communist-ruled. And both the states are in dire strait. They share one thing in common: a depressing economic scenario. In West Bengal industry is languishing whereas in other states it is flourishing. The same is true of Kerala. Kerala has the highest literacy rate, the highest foreign remittances and the lowest level of infant mortality. But it has a negative rate of industrial growth.

And the stage is set this winter for the worst rubber and coconut crop. Kerala today has to import every basic necessity for daily life from other states. Thiruvananthapuram in the south of the state is one big urban jungle. CPM rules the roost. Political murders are common.

According to The Hindu, the number of political murders which have taken place in one district Kunnoor alone, during the last, say, 20 years ranges between 121 and 127.

Dismiss the Left state governments Nobody has been caught, let alone tried. That is justice under the CPM. Both the communist and left wing governments in West Bengal and Kerala should have been dismissed a long while ago. But no Congress government in Delhi would have dared to do so, despite the fact that Bengalis and Kerla-ites live in constant terror of CPM depredations.

There is no reason why the BJP-led coalition should not impose President's rule in these benighted states where only the jungle law prevails. But in this regard our intellectuals are silent. The CPM can do no wrong. The BJP can do nothing right. That is their philosophy.

There is something wrong in the mid-set of our intellectuals who see violence only in the context of ideology. CPM violence is okay. But retaliatory BJP anger is condemnable. There is no logic in this kind of thinking. But our intellectuals who wear blinkers refuse to distinguish between right and wrong. That is the saddest part of it all. But one thing is certain: the days of Left-led governments in India are numbered.

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