State police throws security ring around rebellious LDF MLA P.V. Anvar’s house ahead of public meeting in Malappuram

CPI(M) workers burning P.V. Anvar, MLA, in effigy in Malappuram on Friday (September 27, 2024) night.
| Photo Credit: SAKEER HUSSAIN

The State police have thrown a security ring around dissident Left Democratic Front (LDF) legislator P.V. Anvar’s house in Malappuram, amidst increasingly strident Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] protests denouncing the MLA as a turncoat and catspaw for fundamentalist forces. 

The police move came hours before Mr. Anvar was scheduled to address a public meeting in Nilambur town on Sunday (September 29, 2024) evening.

At the meeting, he threatened to release more evidence of wrongdoing against the police, party leaders, and Mr. Vijayan’s political office.

Mr. Anvar had also repeatedly flagged severe threats to his life and those of his family members and applied for a fire-arm license for self-protection. 

Disregarding a CPI(M) ultimatum last week, Mr. Anvar pivoted somewhat vehemently against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his office, and his family after he felt that the government and party had given short shrift to his demand to remove Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order M.R. Ajith Kumar from the top post on charges of corruption, criminality, and secret links with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Mr. Anvar also accused Mr. Vijayan’s political secretary, P. Sasi, of being hand-in-glove with the ranking officer. He also exited the CPI(M) parliamentary party in the Kerala Legislative Assembly,

Seemingly at the end of its tether and repeatedly buffeted by Mr. Anvar’s muckraking press conferences that provided ammunition to the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to take potshots at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), the CPI(M) severed its ties with the MLA.

CPI(M) State Secretary, M.V. Govindan, exhorted CPI(M) workers to “resist and expose” Mr. Anvar’s crusade against the party and government.

Mr. Govindan’s public denunciation of Mr. Anvar prompted Malappuram’s CPI(M) workers to take to the streets in significant numbers.

They burned Mr. Anvar in effigy and raised slogans threatening him with physical harm. The CPI(M) also erected hoardings across the district condemning Mr. Anvar’s “betrayal”.

Refusing to be cowed into silence, Mr. Anvar upped his ante in his conflict with the CPI(M) leadership. Claiming to champion the cause of ordinary CPI((M) workers and minorities, which Mr. Anvar portrayed as hapless victims of police excesses in North Kerala, the MLA singled out CPI(M)‘s Malappuram district secretary, E.N. Mohandas, for the attack.

He accused Mr. Mohandas of kowtowing to Sangh Parivar’s interests and having a virulently anti-minority mindset.

Mr. Mohandas countered on Sunday that Mr. Anvar had become a tool in the hands of fundamentalist forces inimical to CPI(M) ‘s growing acceptance among minorities, chiefly Muslims in North Kerala. He said Mr. Anvar’s incendiary statements threatened to upset the communal peace in North Kerala.

Meanwhile, anticipating political violence, the police have upped their street presence in Nilambur town.