Kerala Assembly: Opposition UDF stages walkout blaming government, CPI(M) for ‘cult of crude bomb violence’ in Kannur
Congress legislator Sunny Joseph leads attack against Treasury Benches by moving notice for adjournment motion for emergency debate on the circumstances that led to death of 86-year-old man in a crude bomb explosion in Kannur on June 18
Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition walked out of the Kerala Assembly on June 19 condemning the government and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] for the “cult of crude bomb violence” that has claimed the lives of scores of innocents, including children, over the past years, in Kannur.
Congress legislator Sunny Joseph led the attack against the Treasury Benches by moving a notice for adjournment motion for an emergency debate on the circumstances that led to the death of an 86-year-old man, Velayudhan, in a crude bomb explosion at Eranjoli, near Thalassery, in Kannur district on June 18.
86-year-old man killed as crude bomb explodes at Thalassery in Kerala
Mr. Joseph said the octogenarian had stumbled on an explosive device concealed in a steel container while scouting around in an abandoned compound for fallen coconuts. Curiosity prompted Velayudhan to pry open the container, setting off an explosion that killed him.
Mr. Joseph said Velayudhan’s death was the latest incident in a series of accidental crude bomb explosions that have claimed the lives of several persons, including bomb-makers beholden to the CPI(M), in Kannur.
The victims included two scrap pickers, a father and a son from Assam, children, MNREG scheme workers, and Congress and IUML workers.
Mr. Joseph accused the CPI(M) of lionising bomb-makers, including building monuments for those killed while fabricating crude incendiary devices for use against political rivals and succouring their families in “party villages”.
Mr. Joseph angered the Treasury Benches by alleging that CPI(M) leader P. Jayarajan’s son sustained injuries when making a crude bomb. Speaker A.N. Shamseer told Mr. Joseph to dwell on contemporary matters and not hark back to incidents more than a decade ago.
Mr. Joseph said CPI(M) used its political heft to prevent the police from investigating lethal country bomb explosions. He claimed that police investigators, under duress from CPI(M) local leaders, often obfuscated the political motive behind fabricating crude bombs and blamed lethal explosions on “gang rivalry”.
Mr. Joseph said the police usually arrived at the scenes of the explosions only after CPI(M) workers erased evidence and sanitised the locality of crude bombs.
Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan said the CPI(M) in Kannur faced the consequences of actively courting criminals.
Primary targets
He said the party’s henchmen and bomb-makers were fighting each other using the same lethal devices they fabricated to target political rivals at the CPI(M)‘s instance. He said Opposition activists were the primary targets of CPI(M)‘s bomb-makers and not the RSS or the BJP.
He accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of secretly making peace with the Sangh Parivar at a meeting convened by a spiritual leader in Thiruvananthapuram.
“I request the CPI(M) to lay down their weapons and restore peace and polite political discourse in Kannur. Or you could post cautionary boards in party strongholds to warn the public of the menace of unexploded bombs stashed in houses and strewn around in abandoned compounds, under bushes and even in rubbish piles?”, he added.
Mr. Vijayan attempted to turn the tables on the Opposition Benches by accusing the Congress of initiating a vicious circle of political blood-letting in Kannur.
He said a Congress leader had invited media to the party’s district committee office and displayed them a range of crude bombs, including some devices designed to deter and others to kill.
Mr. Vijayan said Kannur was at peace. “There is no circumstance for any person or outfit to fabricate bombs or hoard weapons fearing political violence”, he said. Mr. Vijayan said the police would crack down on those who divert explosives for criminal purposes.
Mr. Shamseer rejected the Opposition’s request for an adjournment debate based on Mr. Vijayan’s reply.
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