The first thought which comes to mind when one talks about Kerala is the ‘high literacy rate and high HDI’ of the state, ‘scenic beaches and landscapes’, ‘medical tourism’, etc. But, of late, we are hearing a lot about the failed law and order situation in the state, regular killings of RSS/BJP members and Hindus. This is not something new, to understand the current persisting situation, we should take a look back at the history of communism in the state.
Kerala in 1957 was the first state which democratically elected a communist party to power. Communist parties were never democratically elected anywhere else in the world till then. Since 1957, the communist party has held power for most of the time. What they understood then was, education is the most important tool for indoctrination as children can be moulded in whatever shape the state wants, thus communist party has been in power till date as the children are fed information as to why communism is good, and all other systems bad. Thus, education was given utmost importance in the state, and we can see the state leading the country in literacy rates year after year.
Also, they felt that improving the basic social amenities will boost the people’s perception in favour of communism, thus the HDI in the state is high when compared to other states in the country.
Armed with the two most important weapons, people’s support and the future – the indoctrinated children, the communist party began tightening their hold in the state. No opposition was allowed to grow big enough to question their clout, the colleges were ruled by SFI members and dissenting voices was suppressed there too. Even the movies made in Malayalam attract people towards the ideology of communism.
The Communist ideology is such that no dissent is given space when they are in power. They see RSS as a threat as its growing in the state and it has a pan-India base which can challenge them anytime.
Thus, we read almost every day about how the RSS/BJP members are attacked by communist members and how the situation of Hindus in the state is very bad.
What appalls me is the neglect shown by the National media towards the situation in Kerala, they have all the time in the world to show incidents in America, but when it comes to a state in India, they don’t find it important. The social media has always been a step forward when it comes to pointing out the attacks in Kerala, thus the media had to take cognizance of the situation and report it, but it was just a report and not given much importance like other cases, such as the Dadri incident or Rohit Vemula, etc. were given.
The NHRC has issued a notice to the State Police Chief as late as January 25th after seeing a news report regarding the same. The law and order situation is not new to Kerala. Let us look at a few stats released by the NRCB, this report is of 2015 released last year.
⦁ 257074 IPC Cases were registered under IPC Crimes.
⦁ The rate of such crimes in the state was a staggering 723.2, second only to Delhi, while the National Average was 234.2.
⦁ 139562 crimes against the body (murder, attempt to murder, culpable homicide, kidnapping and abduction, and such cases) were registered.
⦁ The rate of such crimes was 392.6 against the National Average of 68.1.
⦁ Though 6981 cases against Public Order, riots were registered, the rate of such crimes was 19.6 against the National average of 6.9.
Though a few justify the amount of cases registered stating that ‘Kerala is a highly literate state, thus the confidence of the public in the Police is high’, one can’t ignore the stats. Also there are reports that many cases are unregistered, and this applies for other states as well. But, when it comes to the protection of RSS/BJP members, the Kerala Police seem to play blind and ignore their plight. The MHA should pull up the state government for the law and order failure of the state.
Taking a note of the recent crimes, both in Kerala and across India, it makes me realize that the lives of Hindus is not a penny’s worth in the Country.
The media ignores the cases, sometimes just giving it a passing off report, and the government hardly gives any importance to the cases. So, at the end of the day, it falls upon us to protect ourselves and stand up against such atrocities. Sometimes, we just sit and ignore the cases, as we feel that we have got nothing to do with it, but one day, the same people will come and knock our doors and we won’t have anyone else to stand up for us. So, we have to fight back before all is lost.
To conclude, I would like to say that, ‘For a liveable future, we will have to fight today’. Today, the situation persists in Kerala, tomorrow it can be elsewhere, we have to stand up and face them, before we become history.
PS: ‘Fight back’ doesn’t indicate violence. I meant it in a broader term, i.e., stand up and raise your voices so that the government hears your grievances and also fight it out legally, giving it a more stable response.
Sources:
http://ncrb.nic.in/StatPublications/CII/CII2015/cii2015.asp
⦁ Page 18 – NCRB Compendium (the above link).
⦁ Page 20
⦁ Page 25-26
⦁ Page 30-31
www.quora.com
http://keralapolice.org/public-information/crime-statistics/ipc-cases