Umpteen are incidents of the state using force to repress opposition in Kerala as everywhere else. The pre-independence period witnessed the most brutal of them, like the 1946 firing in Punnapra Vayalar which accounted for the highest casualties. If the royal government of Thiruvithamkoor was the architect of that tragedy, the British Indian government was responsible for the next most gruesome incident- the Wagon Tragedy. While the Punnapra Vayalar firing took a toll of more than 200 (unofficially more than 1000), nearly 70 persons arrested in connection with the Malabar rebellion were choked to death in the second incident. The wagon tragedy took place while the arrested were being transported by the police from Tirur to Podanur by cramming them inside a closed railway carriage in 1921. These were only the worst among the numerous dark incidents of state-sponsored violence in pre-independence Kerala.

With independence and the establishment of democracy, governments elected by the people became more restrained, responsible, and tolerant. That doesn't mean that state brutality ended forever. Many ugly incidents occurred under most democratic governments irrespective of parties. The firing that took the highest toll in post-independent Kerala occurred in 1959 under the state’s first elected government led by the CPI. Seven persons were killed in that incident when police opened fire at anti-government (Vimochana Samaram) protesters in Angamaly. Next on the dismal list in terms of casualties is the 1994 police firing at Koothuparamba which took the lives of five CPI(M) youths who were trying to protest against Minister M V Raghavan of the UDF government.

Though casualties were less, there were many other incidents of firing, police beatings, custodial deaths, etc under various governments including the........

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