Twenty-six year old Sanoop U was hacked to death on Sunday night (4 October) reportedly by a gang of RSS, Bajrang Dal and BJP workers. Sanoop was the Secretary of the CPI(M)’s Puthussery Colony branch in the Chovvannur panchayat of Kerala’s Thrissur district. He belonged to a Dalit community, and was also the Joint Secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India’s (DYFI) Chovvanur Area Committee.
Among the accused in Sanoop’s murder, Abhayjeet Arankott veettil, Karimpanackal Satheesh alias Marion, and Sreerag Aven veettil are reportedly active with the RSS-BJP. Another accused, Chittilangad Tharayil Nandanan is a Bajrang Dal leader who was earlier with the Indian National Congress. Bajrang Dal is the violent paramilitary wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, the RSS’s “religious” wing. The murder-accused were allegedly involved in a drug mafia backed by the Sangh Parivar. Nandanan is an accused in several criminal cases.
Sanoop is the fourth left activist to be killed by right-wing forces in Kerala in the past seven weeks.
CPI(M) activist Siyad (35) was killed in Kayamkulam (Alappuzha district) on 18 August. The killer was allegedly backed by the Congress – Kaavil Nisam, a Municipal Councillor of the Congress was held for helping the murderer escape.
Haq Muhammad (24) and Mithilaj (30), two activists of the DYFI, were murdered in Venjaramood (Thriuvananthapuram district) on 30 August, the night before Onam. Haq Muhammad was a CPI(M) member and the President of the DYFI’s Kalingin Mukham Unit. Mithilaj was the Joint Secretary of DYFI’s Thevalakkad Unit. Eight Congress workers were arrested in connection with their murder.
On Sunday, Sanoop was busy with arrangements for the DYFI’s food distribution programme at the Medical College Hospital, Thrissur. The DYFI has been distributing food packets to poor patients and their bystanders in medical colleges and district hospitals across Kerala every day. This programme, named ‘Hridayapoorvam’ (With All Our Heart), was launched in 2017, with DYFI committees taking turns to take responsibility to collect food packets from families who volunteer to contribute and to distribute them. The DYFI’s Chovvannur Area Committee was in charge of the food distribution at the Medical College Hospital, Thrissur on Monday.
Even as they were consumed by grief following Sanoop’s murder, DYFI activists ensured that the food distribution went ahead without interruption on Monday.
Sanoop was orphaned at a young age – his mother Sati passed away when he was three years old, and his father Unnikrishnan died soon after. He was brought up by Vilasini, his aunt. He took up construction work after his school years. As a political activist, he was in the forefront for all sorts of issues concerning the colony and its 57 families.
Photos and videos of the people of the colony grieving for Sanoop have been widely circulated in the past two days. The entire Puthussery colony had become his family.
A pattern seems to be emerging in the recent murders of communists in Kerala. The slain communists were all young, and popular in their areas. They were clearly seen as threats to the right-wing forces. Sanoop, for instance, was expected to play a pivotal role in the area during the upcoming panchayat and state elections. Eliminating young communist cadre and intimidating the rest seems to be part of the right-wing ploy. It is suspected that the attempt is also to provoke left activists into some sort of retaliation, although the CPI(M) leadership has been at pains to urge its cadre to exercise restraint. The violent attacks of the past few weeks have been entirely one-sided, having been directed against the communists by both the Congress and the RSS-BJP, the two main factions of the political right-wing.
The calculation of the right forces is that the mainstream media would come to their aid as usual by playing down the murders of communists, as if they are lesser human beings. Even sections who are otherwise vocal about atrocities against Dalits largely tend to ignore the murders of Dalits who are communists, as evidenced by reactions to the murder of DYFI activist Asok in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu on 12 June 2019.
Three other CPI(M) activists – Vipin, Jithin and Abhijith – have been injured in the sangh attack that resulted in Sanoop’s death.
After postmortem, Sanoop’s body was received by CPI(M) leaders. The body was draped in the Red Flag by Central Committee member and Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch all-India President K Radhakrishnan, CPI(M) State Committee member P Rajeev, CPI(M) District Secretary AM Varghese, State Committee members AC Moideen, NR Balan, & PK Biju, DYFI State Secretary AA Rahim and DYFI State President S Satheesh. The cremation was done at the Santhitheeram, Shoranur at 8 pm on Monday.
