The Assembly on Tuesday witnessed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan employing his tried and tested defence strategy of sounding deeply hurt to avoid answering difficult questions.
The Opposition had posed serious questions about the police action in a tribal hamlet in Attappady, Palakkad, on August 8. The charge was that the police had entered Vattakkolly tribal settlement, Attappady, in huge numbers at the crack of dawn, broke into homes and roughed up tribals who were sleeping.
The Chief Minister, in turn, was angry that there was a conspiracy to undermine the police force in Kerala.
Instead of explaining the police action, the Chief Minister read out from a written text the good deeds of the police during the floods and the pandemic. He did not respond to any of the grave charges levelled by the Opposition. It was as if, for him, the police were the victims.
Earlier, while opening the debate on the adjournment motion and before the Opposition had a chance to state their cases, Pinarayi attributed the trouble in the hamlet to a family feud. He said it started when a tribal woman Rajamani (whose husband Murugan and father-in-law Choriya Mooppan were arrested by the police on August 8) allowed her cow to graze in another man's property. He said the woman had complained that she was stoned by the owner of the property.
The Chief Minister, reading out from a report prepared by the police, said that the police were attacked when they went to arrest two tribals in the Vattakkolly tribal hamlet in Attappady. Five policemen, including a woman, were injured. He also said that Murugan and his father had refused to appear before the police even after they were summoned.
Muslim League MLA N Shamsudheen, making the appeal for an adjournment motion, agreed there were family troubles. "Of course, there were family disputes. But the issue was not about the grazing of a cow but about the reign of terror unleashed by the police in the tribal hamlet," Shamsudheen said.
He said the police entered the hamlet by dawn and broke into the houses. "There are visuals of the police caning tribal women who were crying. The video clip also shows the police thrashing the son of Murugan. It also shows the police tearing the boy's clothes," he said. "The Chief Minister only has to refer to these visuals to realise the atrocities committed by the police on poor tribals," he added.
The Chief Minister, in his opening remarks, had almost as an afterthought mentioned that Murugan's son Rajiv was also injured.
Shamsudheen said the arrests could be traced to the increasing instances of land grab in the area. "Murugan was a tribal activist who had been fighting the land mafia in the area," Shamsudheen said. Murugan was the vice chairman of the Adivasi Action Committee in the area.
That there was disproportionate police violence is borne out by the fact that the State Human Rights Commission has taken a suo motu case against the police for their actions in Vattakkolly. "If as you say the police had done the right thing, why did the Human Rights Commission register a case against the police," Shamsudheen said.
Shamsudheen also levelled the serious charge that the police action was at the behest of local CPM leaders. "It was on the orders of local CPM leaders that the police barged into the hamlet in the wee hours of August 9," he said.
Opposition Leader V D Satheesan contested the Chief Minister's charge that Murugan had refused to appear in person before the police. "On August 3 itself, when his wife was stoned by the neighbour, Murugan had informed the police.They said they did not have a vehicle and also fuel. On 5th August, this man the Chief Minister said had refused to appear before the police, went to the station directly and filed a complaint. When even that did not work, he met the Agaly ASP directly on August 7," he said and added: "It was after all this that the police dragged him out of his house on August 9."
Satheesan said the police had become a tool in the hands of the land mafia. "If you continue to justify their actions, the police will take this as a license to carry on with their deviant ways," Satheesan told the Chief Minister.
He also said the atrocities against the scheduled castes and tribes were increasing in Kerala. "Now we are seventh in the country for the most number of attacks against the SC/ST. There is not a single South Indian state in the first ten," he said.
Since the Chief Minister spoke highly of the sacrifices made by the police during the pandemic, Satheesan had a counter question for him. "Our doctors too have been doing great work. A local secretary of the CPM slapped a doctor in Kainakary (Alappuzha). What action has the police taken against the local CPM leader," he asked.
The Chief Minister did not respond to any of the major charges. However, he said he would look into why the police entered the tribal settlement early in the morning.
