Shameful value system needs purgation

Kerala is lamenting for there is no penance for the sin done to Madhu.

Every Keralite who still has mercy left inside him, has been repeatedly seeking forgiveness with his heads down in shame. The crime we have committed cannot be put right by issuing statements, updating social media status or articles. Every blow he suffered struck hard at the skeleton of the collective conscience of the Keralites who live with the belief that he is very progressive and civilized. The knocks destroyed the ribs of our fake progressiveness. If these tears are only a hoax to conceal the embarrassment of having had to stand humiliated before the world the same way Madhu was humiliated and became helpless before the mob, then we should be ashamed of the depth of decay we have reached. On the contrary, if the sorrow which knows no bounds at the sacrifice of Madhu’s life, is sincere, the society will have to be ready for immediate corrective measures. Then we will be forced to shed the violent hero perception founded on power-hungry suspicion of the other. But it is doubtful if Kerala's social order which witnesses a strengthening of the mentality of local collective feudalism, can achieve that.

That Keralites also have been evolving into an aggressive mob is not just a concern but a fact. No Keralite has so far expressed any remorse in the attack of a mentally-ill Bihar youth in Manandhery, Kannur, on the suspicion of kidnapping children and feverishly spreading the video with torture scenes on the social media. There are only sentiments as far as the ire of Keralites are concerned, it is neither a rage nor a protest stirred by consistent stances. That is why the collective conscience of the Keralites which was in a state of unrest following Madhu’s murder, reacted indifferently towards another shocking death in Punalur. Sugathan who had been running an automobile workshop in Muscat for 40 years returned home two months ago ending his migrant life to become an entrepreneur. The very decision to start a workshop on land in Ilambal became the cause for ending his life. For the fault of being unwilling to pay 'observation wages’ to the local bullies out of the hard-earned asset of his entire life, Sugathan had to pay a price with his life. The CPI's youth organization alleged that his workshop - which he had built using his entire saving of a hard life as expatriate - was built on reclaimed farm land, and on that argument they blocked its work. The reason why that legal objection was raised against his workshop, but not against the adjacent auditorium, is the fact that Sugathan would not succumb to the local political hegemony.

The suicide by Sugathan, who, at the face of extra-legal and organized political hegemony, lost all hopes about life, has to be noted as nothing but political murder. And this has happened under a government which held a Loka Kerala Sabha for the uplift of expatriates and declared that it will find means to provide suitable livelihood to those who return from abroad. The political interpretations that in effect justify planned political murders as natural response of mob sentiments, only help to reinforce the perception that mobs have a permission to enforce punishment without trial. Unless we get rid of the political feudalism that makes law and justice system irrelevant, or supersedes them with brute use of power, bureaucracy, and exercise of mob power, there will not be any justice meted out in the deaths of Madhu and Sugathan. And that has its genesis in the decadent values held by each Malayali within and without. Any lamentation without a catharsis of such degrading value perceptions will end up transient, and will contribute nothing to change.