‘Red salute to convicts’: CPI(M) faces outrage after celebratory send-off for attackers of BJP MP Sadanandan Master
A political firestorm has erupted in Kerala after the Communist Party of India (Marxist) organised a celebratory farewell for eight party workers convicted in a brutal 1994 attack that left current BJP Rajya Sabha MP and state vice-president Sadanandan Master permanently disabled.
The send-off, held outside the Thalassery sessions court and later in Mattannur, Kannur, the very town where the attack took place three decades agowas marked by party slogans, cheering cadres, and garlands. Among those present was Mattanur MLA and former Health Minister KK Shailaja, whose public appearance at the event has triggered sharp backlash from across the political spectrum.
Videos from the farewell, now viral on social media, show CPI(M) workers treating the convicted men not as criminals, but as heroes returning from battle. The spectacle comes after the Supreme Court dismissed their final appeal, upholding the Kerala High Court’s verdict that refused any leniency, calling the 1994 assault “premeditated” and “deeply condemnable.”
“This is unfortunate and sends a dangerous message to society,” said Sadanandan Master, the victim of the attack, who lost both his legs in the ambush. “These men were not acquitted. Every court, from the trial court to the Supreme Court, upheld their conviction. And yet, the CPI(M) decided to celebrate them, and worse, an elected MLA like KK Shailaja chose to lead it.
From brutality to bail to celebration
On January 25, 1994, Sadanandan, then a 30-year-old school teacher and the saha karyavah of the RSS in Kannur, was returning home after visiting relatives ahead of his sister’s wedding. What awaited him was a brutal, targeted assault by CPI(M) workers, a planned act of political vengeance that left him wheelchair-bound for life.
The case saw 12 accused, but only eight were convicted in 1997 after a trial in the Kannur court. The other four were acquitted of conspiracy charges. Though initially charged under the stringent TADA (Terrorists and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act), those provisions were later dropped.
The eight convicts were sentenced to seven years in prison but spent most of the past 30 years out on bail as their appeals progressed. In January this year, the Kerala High Court upheld their convictions, observing:
“The incident did not happen in a fit of rage or on sudden provocation… the attack appears to have been premeditated. The accused do not deserve any sort of leniency.”
The court also enhanced the compensation, directing each of the convicts to pay ₹50,000 to the victim. After the Supreme Court refused to entertain their final plea, the High Court cancelled their bail and ordered them to surrender by August 4.
Political message or moral bankruptcy?
Instead of a quiet, lawful surrender, the CPI(M) orchestrated a spectacle. The farewell looked more like a rally than a moment of accountability and critics say it reveals a disturbing culture of glorifying political violence.
While CPI(M) leaders tried to frame it as a show of solidarity with party comrades, the visuals, garlands, raised fists, and party slogans, told a different story.
“As a public representative, KK Shailaja should have known better,” Sadanandan Master remarked. “When leaders glorify convicts, they send the wrong message to the youth, that violence in the name of ideology is honourable.”
With the convicts now lodged in Kannur Central Prison, the episode has sparked a wider debate in Kerala: Is political allegiance enough to wash away the stain of violence or is the CPI(M) rewriting justice with party slogans?
How Sadanandan Master was attacked by CPIM goons?
On the night of 25th January, 1994, at the age of 30, Sadanandan was ambushed by CPI(M) goons near his home village of Perinchery. In a shocking act of political violence, they chopped off both his legs and left him bleeding on the roadside as a warning to those switching political sides.
Recalling that night, he once shared how no one dared to help him because of fear. It was only when the police arrived on the scene, maybe fifteen minutes later, that I was whisked off to the hospital. By then, I had lost consciousness.
But that terrible night didn’t stop him from moving forward. He returned to teaching in 1999 and still works as a social science teacher at Sree Durga Vilasam Higher Secondary School in Peramangalam.
Over time, he also became an active part of the BJP and contested elections from the Koothuparambu constituency in 2016 and 2021.
In his youth, Sadanandan leaned towards communist ideas, just like many young people in Kerala. But things changed for him when he started reading more about the RSS and its views on cultural nationalism.
He was especially moved by poet Akkitham’s article ‘Bharata Darshanangal’ and joined the RSS in 1984, even though his family had strong Left roots. His father was a retired teacher and a CPI(M) supporter, and his brother was also an active party worker at the time.
Today, apart from teaching, Sadanandan is the state vice-president of the National Teachers Union in Kerala. He also edits its magazine Deshiya Adhyapaka Vartha and is part of the Bharatiya Vichara Kendram, an RSS-affiliated intellectual group.
He is married to his college love, Vanitha Rani, who is also a teacher, and their daughter Yamuna Bharati is studying BTech and is active in the ABVP student organisation.
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