Watch: CPI(M) activists assault local AAP leader Savad Alipra in Kerala

New Delhi: CPI(M) activists, including a panchayat president, assaulted a local Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader on Tuesday in Malappuram district when he went to the panchayat office to enquire about his complaints about local issues at Mampad panchayat.

Savad Alipra, the Wandoor Assembly constituency convenor of AAP and an RTI activist, alleged that he was assaulted at the Mampad panchayat office by a group of people led by the Left party leader and president of the panchayat Srinivasan on Sunday evening.

After the visuals of the assault went viral on social media, several people came out criticising the ruling party workers over the incident.

#CPMviolence against AAP volunteers in #Kerala!
This is so inhumane, brutal & uncivilized. CPM Mampad Panchayat President in Malappuram attacking our elderly Volunteer Savad Ji for questioning #corruption. Shame on @CPIMKerala. Punish the culprits @pinarayivijayan @CMOKerala pic.twitter.com/gjBCCH0cjE

— Aam Aadmi Party Kerala (@aapkerala) August 7, 2022

Alipra, a former local secretary of the CPI(M) before joining the AAP, said he went to the panchayat to know the status of the two complaints that he had filed earlier regarding some local issues.

"I was beaten up on my face and dragged at the office without any provocation. They kicked me out of the gate," he told TV channels on Tuesday.

He said one of his party colleagues, who accompanied him, managed to take the visuals of the assault on his mobile phone otherwise the incident would not have come to the public fore. He also said a complaint was lodged with the Nilambur police in this regard.

When contacted, Nilambur police said a case has been registered based on the complaint of Alipra and an investigation is going on.

A history of political violence

This is not an isolated incident in the Left Democratic Front (LDF)-led Kerala. In 2016-2021, the first stint of the Pinarayi Vijayan government , 32 political killings were reported in the state, of which, 12 took place in Kannur, the chief minister's home district, police records show. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leaders have alleged that several more killings of their workers were not recognised by the government as political murders.

While in the last two decades, police records show that around 160 workers from CPI, BJP and Congress were murdered from 2001 to 2017, and 69 of these were only in north Kerala's Kannur.

Taking cognisance of the situation, a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court last month decried political violence and observed that the sad saga of political rivalry and mindless killing had torn asunder the social fabric of the state, reports The Hindu. The Bench comprising Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice C Jayachandran while acquitting 13 RSS activists in the murder of a CPI(M) activist in Thiruvananthapuram observed that “the saga written in blood continues and memorials held by rival parties offer no solace to destitute parents, hapless widows and orphaned children, who often lose the only breadwinner of the family. The yearly remembrances, only stoke the fires of rivalry and do not wipe the tears of the bereaved or awaken the conscience of those who matter.”

AAP in Kerala

The AAP has been trying to find its feet in the state, which has a long history of successful political alliances, mainly the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). Earlier this year in May AAP President Arvind Kejriwal visited Kerala. He had during the visit announced the formation of a new alliance called the People's Welfare Alliance with a local outfit called Twenty20 and a host of other small parties in Kerala.

The party had floated its Kerala unit in 2014 and contested a few seats in the Lok Sabha elections of that year. However, the party is yet to come up with an inspiring leadership or a political agenda that would set it apart from existing political parties.

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