Thiruvananthapuram city cantonment police filed a chargesheet against Asianet News Chief Associate Editor and Presenter Vinu V John on charges of incitement to violence. It was filed in the Thiruvananthapuram Third Judicial First Class Magistrate Court.
The charges include sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 116 (abetment of offence), 506 (criminal intimidation), 107 (instigating, encouraging, and aiding a crime) and 120 (o) (causing nuisance and violation of public order) of the Kerala Police Act, 2010.
John was issued a notice directing him to appear on 23 February 2023 for questioning in the case taken up on 28 March 2022. The case was filed for John’s remarks in a channel discussion against Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) leader Elamaram Kareem. Allegedly, the real reason for the re-opening of the case is John’s discussion on the issues related to the extravagant security of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
In 2022, Yasser, an auto-rickshaw driver, went to the hospital with a patient during the 48-hour general strike on March 28 and 29 against the Central Government’s labour policies by the country’s trade unions. Around twenty-five CITU and Swatantra Trade Union (STU)(affiliated to the Indian Union Muslim League) goons in Tirur, Malappuram brutally beat up Yasser.
Trade union leaders argued that Yasser had beaten them up, but later, CCTV footage emerged revealing the truth. Police arrested CITU leader Ranji and STU leader Rafi for the attack. Kareem told reporters that “complaints like an auto being stopped, pinching, scratching, etc.” are being used to belittle the strike.
Even as Kerala Labor Minister V. Sivankutty claimed, the protesters did not stop the people; they blocked all the vehicles and sent them back while the police watched. Even a Magistrate who was going to court in Thiruvananthapuram Petta was stopped. Local police diverted the judge’s vehicle. He reached the court late, summoned the Petta Circle Inspector (CI) directly and demanded an explanation. Such luxuries were not available to ordinary citizens. Violent incidents were reported from all over the state.
Incidentally, communists admitted that everyday life and commerce sputtered to a halt only in Kerala during the ‘nationwide’ general strike called by trade unions.
A case was filed against Asianet’s John precisely one month later, on 28 April 2022, for reference in the discussion held on the night of 28 March 2022. The topic of the TV debate was Kareem’s justifications for the violence during the trade union strike. John was asked to appear for questioning again after ten months.
While discussing this issue, anchor John’s words later became controversial. “Elamaram Kareem’s car should have been stopped and vandalised. They should have been asked to get down if he were with his family. Elamaram should have been punched in the face, and he should have bled from his nose,” John said.
The CPM propagated that this was John’s incitement to attack Kareem. Following this, Elamaram filed a complaint at the Thiruvananthapuram Cantonment Police Station. Suspiciously, Kareem filed his complaint a month after the discussion.
On the same day, the police registered an FIR under four sections of the IPC and one section of the Kerala Police Act. Simultaneously, CPM social media cyber militants also launched a hate campaign against John. Posters appeared near John’s house in Thiruvananthapuram and other parts of the city. Protest marches were organized against Asianet News’ Kozhikode Regional Bureau and Thiruvananthapuram headquarters.
Elamaram Kareem
Kareem is a Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) trade unionist politician from Kozhikode with an alleged reputation for single-handedly shutting down significant industries, most famously Aditya Birla’s Grasim Gwalior Rayons factory on the banks of the Chaliyar River at Mavoor in Kareem’s hometown.
Gwalior Rayons Factory was established around 1957-58. Incidentally, one of the initial decisions of the first democratically elected Communist government of Kerala in 1957 was to invite the Birla Group to set up the Gwalior Rayons in Kozhikode district.
The labour unions (Congress and communists) slowly crept in and indulged in militant trade unionism using dubious excuses like environmental problems, alleging the release of untreated effluents into the Chaliyar River. After long years of agitation, the company closed in 2001. The Birla’s left, never to return. Large industries and influential industrialists shunned Kerala and refused to invest here.
The Birla group had many employee welfare initiatives, including living quarters, the Gwalior Rayons school, Janaseva Kalyan Trust Hospital, and a cultural centre. Even the children of housekeeping staff had access to free education at the school, but not any outsider, no matter who. Many people quit their lucrative government jobs to join Gwalior Rayons.
The unionists stripped and looted the factory, selling whatever they could lay their hands on for scrap. They even stole the ceiling fans in their living quarters. Its closure caused the entire economy of Kozhikode town to sink beyond recognition.
Today, acres of land remain unused by either the government or the company and are now home to creepers and reptiles. There is an ongoing court case between the management and the government regarding land ownership of 300 acres of prime land.
For his contributions, the communists gifted Kareem the Beypore constituency. He won the 2006 assembly elections and was hypocritically granted Kerala’s Ministry of Industries, where he continued until 2011. Beypore is a communist fort that has remained impenetrable to other political parties since the 1980s.
Incidentally, Marad is part of the Beypore constituency. Marad witnessed the gruesome killings and genocide of Hindus on 2 May 2003. Around 90 extremist Islamists went on a rampage armed with swords, knives and country-made bombs that were kept in the local Juma masjid mosque. In the aftermath of the massacre, Hindu fisherfolks and their families migrated to other parts of the district and the state.
A Commission of Enquiry headed by Justice Thomas P Joseph found a secret agenda of Muslim extremists with backing from external forces (Pakistan’s ISI) to wipe out the Hindu community from coastal areas of Kerala. The judicial inquiry report indicated the active participation of political leaders, police higher-ups and bureaucrats. Funding and involvement of foreign agencies in the massacre prompted calls for a CBI inquiry.
Beypore is the epicentre of green communism. The sitting MLA is P.A. Mohammed Riyas, Pinarayi Vijayan’s son-in-law and the incumbent tourism & public works department minister.
From June 2018 to 1 July 2024, Kareem was the CPM MP in Rajya Sabha and a standing committee member on labour. Kareem’s contribution was a suspension for unruly behaviour in the house, such as tearing documents, breaking mics, standing on tables, and mocking the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha during the passage of farm bills in September 2020.
John is a vocal critic of the BJP and the RSS. There is an emerging trend among the media persons in Kerala after George Soros and his local cronies started a paid news campaign. They do not criticise the Congress party or their top leaders anymore.
