The BJP has called for a dawn-to-dusk in Kerala today after an RSS karyavah was hacked to death by a bike- and autorickshaw-borne gang last night in the suburbs of the state capital.
Rajesh, a 34-year-old RSS activist, was rounded up and hacked to death even as he was returning from a neigbourhood shop after buying groceries for home.
What makes the murder stands out is that it occurred on the second day of the three-day-period when prohibitory orders are in force in Thiruvananthapuram in view of a wave of the CPI(M)-BJP/RSS skirmishes.
The police have been put on heightened alert fearing retaliatory attacks of the like which has occurred sporadically over the past week that necessitated clamp down of prohibitory orders in the first place.
Although fatal attacks on activists are not new in the capital, the latest one assumes significance in the context of the changed profiles of the parent parties involved.
While the BJP is in power at the Centre and looking to extend its dominance further over the country's political landscape, sworn rival CPI(M) is heading the government in Kerala.
THe CPI(M) has been unnerved by the rising political influence of lectoral challenge posed by the BJP in its own backyard, the only State where it is relevant other than Tripura.
Fight for dominance
While the CPI(M) is eager to defend its own turf through rearguard action in the State, it is the appraisal of its stakes involved and a calibrated sizing up of its potential that keeps the BJP on the go.
This is what makes political observers to suspect that if the parties have dared to 'import' the Kannur-type wild cat strikes aimed at each others's offices, houses and property and maiming individuals.
With the latest murder, they are fearful if physical elimination of rivals is also sought to being resorted to as is evident in the manner in which the RSS karyavah was targeted and hacked to death.
This would represent a different and potentially dangerous phase of the hostilities, given the advantage of the political power that each party enjoys at the State and the Central levels.
Meanwhile, it turns out the murder was not the sole incident that breached the prohibitory orders in Thiruvananthapuram. It was preceded by a couple of house attacks elsewhere in the city.
'Dastardly attack'
The BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan led the hundreds of BJP-RSS activists which thronged the private hospital where the body of the slain RSS karyavah was kept last night.
Rajasekharan described as cruel, dastardly and fiendish the manner in which the victim was attacked with after a 20-strong gang of CPI(M) goons pounced on him.
According to him, the police under the charge of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was acting to the script authored at the CPI(M) headquarters aimed at physically eliminating the BJP and the RSS.
While calling for a state-wide hartal, he sought the cooperation of all democracy-abiding citizens and pleaded sorry for any bother to normal life that it might bring to bear.
But this was inevitable judging from the resort to 'unprovoked violence' let loose by the CPI(M) in the State that has no parallel in any democracy.
BJP sources said this morning that an inquest of the body of the RSS activist is being conducted and it will be taken to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College for post-mortem.
Sensitive route
The body will be taken later to his home in the suburbs and taken for cremation back into a crematorium in the city at a distance of seven km.
According to information, the body will be taken in a procession to the crematorium at 3.30 pm through the main thoroughfares of the city, already heavily guarded by the police.
The entire route will turn out to be sensitive since the procession will pass through the strongholds of both the BJP and the CPI(M), including colleges where the respective student unions are in power.
Three persons have already been arrested in connection with the murder. It is unofficially reported that the victim had given out some names in his dying declaration.
Inspector-General of Police Manoj Abraham has warned social media activists from spreading provocative messages related to the unfortunate incident that happened last night.
"A lot of provocative messages and videos are being spread....the police is closely monitoring the same and action will be taken against anybody spreading such videos and messages," he said.