Malayalam actor-director Sreenivasan on Sunday said that people in Kerala were fed up with political leaders spreading “the ideology of hate”, Manorama reported. At a book launch in Thrissur, Sreenivasan said party leaders were using their workers as martyrs to gain power and money, leaving the cadres to be sentenced to jail.
“Political leaders believe that they can drum up support by splashing martyrs’ pictures on flex boards and raising an emotional plea,” the actor said. “The martyrs are pushed to the brink because of their own helplessness and the brainwashing by their leaders.”
Most parties believed that murdering their rivals was a way to protect their own supporters, he added. “Democratically elected people are becoming autocrats, and I do not have any hope in that kind of politics,” he said, according to Matrubhumi.
Sreenivasan’s remarks come in the wake of renewed scrutiny on political killings in Kerala. There have been eight such murders in the state since the Left Democratic Front government came to power in May 2016. Both the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party have blamed each other for the killings.
In October, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP of deliberately creating tension in the state. He had lauded the government for taking “all initiatives” and showered praise on the police for being impartial in their handling of the murders.
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