AYUSH ANAND & VAIBHAV CHADHA
Date of Attack: January 25, 1994
Place of occurrence: On the way to home from Uruvachal bus stand at Perincherry, Mattanur municipality, Kannur, Kerala.
At the time of attack, he was 30 years of age and a teacher at the Govrnment-aided Kuzhikkal Lower Primary School at Perinchery, Mattanur municipality. Now, 22 years after the incident, Sadanandan Master lives at Paramanglam village; Thrissur district. He teaches history at Sri Durga Vilasam Higher Secondary School, Paramangalam, Thrissur.
He contested the 2016 Assembly election on the BJP symbol from Koothuparambu constituency in Kannur. He contested against the now Health Minister and LDF heavyweight KK Shailja, and got 20,787 votes, with a vote share of 14.23 per cent, the second highest for the BJP in Kannur district. In the previous Assembly election, the BJP had got only half of this number in this area.
Family:
Wife: Vanitha Rani (48). She married Sadanandan Master one year after the incident, in 1995.
Daughter: Yamuna Bharti (17)
Narration of his horrific experience in his own words:
“It was a working day and after my school, I went to my uncle’s house which was six kilometres away from my residence to discuss about the arrangements for my sister’s marriage. I returned from there at around 7:30pm. I got down from the bus at Uruvachal bus stand. From there I had to walk about two kilometres to reach my residence at Perinchery. While I was returning, some goons came from behind and grabbed me. They also lobbed country-made bombs in the area to scare the local people. The people fled. The attackers were CPM people.
“First they beat me up and then threw me down on the road. After this, they hit me on the legs with axe and swords. It took them five to 10 minutes to cut my both legs. They threw amputated pieces in the nearby mud. They also dumped mud on the chopped portion of my knee so that it could not be properly treated. I cried for the help but no one came out of fear. I remained in a pool of blood for 15 minutes after their departure. It was only then the the police came.
“The police first admitted me in Koothuparambu Government Hospital, and then, as they referred me, I went to Thallasery Hospital and from there I was finally referred and admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College. I was operated there.
Reason behind the attack:
My village is a strong hold of the CPM/SFI. I was also an active member of SFI before 1984. My entire family was then communist-minded. My father was a CPM member and very active in the party’s affairs. But as I started reading various ideologies and communist fundamentals, I felt that communism was not the solution. It has no relevance in the Indian context, and had even failed miserably across the world. So, I got attracted towards the Sangh ideology. At that time Sangh worker Gokul Das inducted me into the RSS. I was greatly impressed because of the organisation’s discipline, character-building exercise and organisational purity. So I started attending the RSS shakha. I was first made Gathnayak, then Mukhyasikshak and thereafter Tehsil karyawah. I was running a shakha in my village in a very organised and proper way. I was district Sah Karyawah of the RSS at the time of attack and was entrusted with the responsibility of spreading shakha in the Kannur District.
My activity provoked the CPM local leadership as they feared the loss of their stronghold in their declared village territory. My father was alive till 1993. After his demise, they decided to attack me. As my village was a declared CPM territory, where no other political ideology was allowed to function, I first joined the RSS.
Immediate reason:
In September 1993, a strike was called by the CPM. There was a bus stand shelter made by Swayamsewaks at Perinchery. On the day of strike, CPM workers destroyed the cement benches there and started using it to block the road. RSS volunteers came and protested against the destruction of the bus shelter constructed by them. When I heard about it, I came out of my house and tried to talk to some of my communist friends there. But they started the violence and we all were beaten up then. We received minor injuries in the incident.
Culprits:
At that time, the Congress-led UDF Government was in power in Kerala under the leadership of Karunakaran. This case was the first TADA case of Kerala. But when the Left Democratic Front again came in power in 1996 under the leadership of EK Nayanar, it withdrew the TADA charges against the accused as they all were from the CPM. Nine year after the incident, the district court gave its final judgement in 2003.
Eight persons got life imprisonment, among 13 accused in the case. PM Rajan (local committee member, CPM), Krishnan (branch secretary CPM), Chandran (branch committee member, CPM), Mohanan (CPM member), Babu (CPM member), Krishnan II, teacher (CPM), Ravindran (CPM member) and Balan (CPM) were convicted in this case. Now the case is in the High Court and all the accused are free on bail.
His comment over such large scale violence still continues in Kerala:
Sadananda Master said, “This problem of political violence can only be resolved when the CPM leadership changes its mindset. Kerala is our home, our place, and we have to preserve its peace and dignity.” According to him, after each such incident, there is a peace conference. In every peace conference the communists say that the RSS should stop holding its shakhas. They say the BJP can work but the RSS should stop functioning. This is because they realise the RSS is the fountainhead from which opposition to their ill-placed policies emanate and grow.