E-Paper
1994 Kannur violence victim nominated to Rajya Sabha
The nominated members are selected for their contributions in the fields of literature, science, art and social service.
Kerala Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and retired school teacher C Sadanandan Master, who lost both his legs in Kannur district in 1994 as part of political violence, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by President of India Droupadi Murmu.
Sadanandan, along with lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, former foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, and historian Meenakshi Jain, were chosen to fill the vacancies caused by the retirement of nominated members in the Upper House. The nominated members are selected for their contributions in the fields of literature, science, art and social service.
Following the gazette notification’s release, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on social platform X, congratulated Sadanandan and termed his life “an epitome of courage and refusal to bow to injustice”.
“Violence and intimidation couldn’t deter his spirit towards national development. His efforts as a teacher and social worker are also commendable. He is extremely passionate towards youth empowerment. Congratulations to him for being nominated to the Rajya Sabha by Rashtrapati Ji. Best wishes for his role as MP,” Modi said.
The 61-year-old BJP leader, who is from Mattannur in the heart of Communist politics in Kannur district, was appointed as one of 10 vice-presidents in the state BJP unit in a reshuffle last week. He retired as a social science teacher from a high school in Peramangalam in Thrissur district and served as the vice-president of the National Teachers Union in the state.
Since his student years up till the first year of undergraduate degree, Sadanandan said, he was aligned with the SFI, the student wing of the CPI(M). His family members including his father and older brother were also Left sympathisers. But following his college years, he was attracted by the ideals of the RSS, ideological fount of the BJP, and played a role in the growth of the Hindutva outfit in his native village of Perinchery near Mattannur. Within the RSS, he led active roles as Bouddhik Pramukh and later as Sahkaryavah in his home district of Kannur.
It was during his time in the RSS, precisely on January 25, 1994, that Sadanandan was attacked by CPI(M)-affiliated activists in his village just days ahead of his marriage. It was reported at the time that the assailants threw bombs in the area to scare locals off and proceeded to drag Sadanandan out of the car in which he was travelling. He was pinned to the ground and both his legs severed at the knee. The severed legs were thrown away by the attackers before they fled the spot. He was rushed to the local hospital by the police. Since then, Sadanandan has been using prosthetic legs.
The attack on Sadanandan was followed the next day by the retaliatory murder of SFI leader KV Sudheesh in front of his elderly parents by RSS-affiliated activists. Over 35 injuries were reported on Sudheesh’s body during autopsy. The twin attacks and subsequent violence marked the tense atmosphere that prevailed in Kannur district for the years to come.
Sadanandan, who switched to teaching and interventions in the education sector following the attack in 1994, came back to active politics in 2016 and was nominated by the BJP as its candidate from Koothuparambu Assembly constituency. Though he ended up third behind LDF and UDF nominees, he was able to increase the BJP vote-share by over 7%. In the 2021 Assembly elections, he fought from Koothuparambu again on the BJP ticket and ended up third.
On Sunday, the BJP veteran said he received a call directly from the PM informing him of the responsibility.
“The PM told me that I would be shortly given a responsibility and that I should take it up. He didn’t specify what it was. Today, I got a call from the state BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar informing me that I have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha,” he told reporters.
“Today, thankfully there is peace in Kannur and I am among those who want the peace to prevail. I see the 1994 attack on me as a ‘bad dream’ which I want to forget. I see my nomination as the party’s commitment to Kerala and its people,” he said.
With local body elections this year and assembly polls scheduled next year in Kerala, the BJP will likely use Sadanandan Master to target the alleged violent politics of the CPI(M).
