Where villagers wear the party colour

KANNUR: A massive hammer and sickle in concrete sticks out from the side of a road. Further down, electric posts wear a fresh coat of paint; stenciled or scrawled on them are the words "CPIM". Youth wearing red mundus (dhoti) and red bandanas embossed with Che Guevara's face roam the streets. In Kannur's Peral assery, there is little room for doubt: Welcome to the Communist village.
This is just one of nu merous villages taken over by the party, who control them ferociously against in cursions by other parties.The CPM, which traces its roots to Kannur, has the largest number followed by the BJP-RSS.
Kannur's `party villages' are a law unto themselves. Here the party also control the lives of the people. No local resident is willing to speak, while CPM and BJP local netas, requesting anonymity , deny they impose restrictions. But ask around and in hushed whispers people will tell you how these parties "decide who buys or sells properties, who gets to attend marriages and funerals and who marries whom".
Late last year, M K Narayanan of Peralassery faced CPM's wrath because he refused to follow the party diktat. He planned to conduct his daughter's marriage at his house and made all arrangements. But the CPM not only boycotted his family and blocked the road, they threatened the caterer too. Narayanan was forced to shift the wedding to an auditorium at the last minute.
But CPM Edakkad area committee secretary K V Balan refutes the allegations. "They are concocting fake stories to tarnish the party's image," he says.
It isn't just the diktats dished out.There's even a dress code. Red mundu for CPM workers and saffron ones for BJP-RSS followers. CPM party workers feel that in a place where clashes are frequent, it helps in differentiating their cadre from the BJP-RSS followers.
CPM's district secretary P Jayarajan denies the dress code."We've not asked anybody to stop wearing saffron or start wearing red. They themselves felt affinity towards this new style," he says.