After Communist Party of India (CPI) leadership openly condemned the Maoist killing in Nilambur forest of Malappuram district, now CPI national executive member Binoy Viswam has gone one step ahead.
He visited the body of slain Maoist leader Kuppu Devraj at Kozhikode Medical College and paid floral tributes to him when his body was taken out of the morgue for cremation on Friday evening.
Maoist leaders Devraj and Ajitha, were killed by Kerala police’s Thunderbolt force on November 24.
Though police called it an encounter, activists and relatives alleged that it was fake and that it was a brutal killing as the Maoist leaders were unarmed and unwell.
Their bodies were kept in the morgue as relatives gave a petition for a fresh autopsy, but Kerala HC denied the petition.
“It is the duty of a Communist to pay respect to a felled comrade. So, I have been deputed by my party to pay tribute to Devraj. When the Left is ruling the state, police should not resort to right-wing attitude,” Vishwam said, sending a strong message to senior partner CPI (M), The Indian Express reports.
Earlier also, Viswam had expressed his concern over killing of Maoists in the state.
“Right wing spreads the notion that Left wing extremism is the biggest problem India face. Through this, Right parties close eyes at the basic problems of the people.
Even 70 years after Independence, crores of people in India still struggle to get proper housing, clothing and food. Maoists deal with such needs of the people. Communists are against the path Maoists opted as we have given up the concept of armed revolution earlier.
Though their paths are wrong, the issues they raise cannot be avoided. Killings are not a solution. Ideologies should be defended by ideologies itself,” the CPI leader wrote on Facebook.