At the heart of political violence in Kerala is the inability and unwillingness of the communist leadership to unconditionally and unequivocally condemn political murders (Editorial page, “Life in a deadly democracy”, February 27 ). It is time the communist parties realign their ideology with the dictates of parliamentary democracy. What is the difference then between the CPI(M) and the Maoists who unabashedly use violence as a tool to achieve their Utopia? The bottom line is that doctrinaire communism cannot coexist with India’s democratic ethos. The failure of Kerala’s intellectuals and cultural leaders to condemn outright the cult of violence and vigilantism makes them complicit in the deterioration of moral values and the numbing of society’s collective conscience. It is also a fact that Kerala’s social and cultural spaces have been overly politicised.
V.N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram