Bringing Kannur violence to Delhi helps ABVP make case for nationalism as a political alternative

Hyderabad Mar 03 : On Thursday, Kerala's Kannur traveled to Delhi University. Hoardings with photographs of BJP and RSS activists killed or maimed allegedly by CPM activists dotted North campus. Without a doubt, they were disturbing pictures but the intention was precisely that. To show that Kannur was the Wild West of Kerala. The occasion was the ABVP march to protest against it being blamed for the violence in Ramjas college last week and what it calls the anti-national utterances by Leftist groups.

On Friday, Kerala will be in Hyderabad where a mass protest has been organised against the "CPM-sponsored violence on nationalists in Kerala". It is obvious that the BJP has found in the nearly five decade old political violence of Kannur, an opportunity to hit several birds with one stone.

The beginning has already been made on social media. Given that universities, the new akhadas of confrontation, have largely been a right wing versus Left battle — be it at JNU, Delhi University or Hyderabad Central University, any voice that is perceived as pro-Left is greeted with the "What about Kannur?" rhetorical question. The bloodied land of Malabar, the BJP reckons, can be showcased to establish that the party and its affiliate organisations are under attack.

Bringing Kerala to Delhi has worked in terms of shock value, especially with people outside the southern state largely ignorant about the realities on the ground and the history of political killings. A few years ago, I remember a news editor in Delhi asking me if Kannur, Coonoor and Kurnool are indeed different places and wondered why south Indians gave similar sounding names to their towns!

How does making India aware about Kannur help the BJP? On the face of it, it would seem strange for the BJP to give so much important to the Left, given it is a political force on the decline, with no presence beyond Kerala, Bengal and Tripura.