Communist farmers go on a rampage in Kerala paddy fields

The Communist Party of India-Marxist's peasant wing is on a destruction-spree in Kerala -- in the past two months, it has destroyed crops and constructions in hundreds of hectares of paddy fields.

The Kerala Karshaka Thozhilali union's fight is to prevent the substitution of rice with more lucrative cash crops. Since 1990-91, rice has been losing 13,000 hectares every year.

So now, the Communist farmers have taken the matter into their own hands.

The latest of the CPI-M 'hits' occurred in Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala, when activists destroyed a fish farm on a rice field. The owner, Susamma, had established the seasonal business after getting permission from revenue authorities on the promise that she would return to rice cultivation after the season. Susamma has lost nearly Rs 200,000 in the attack.

A couple of days ago, CPI-M farmers had struck at another fish farm, causing the owner a loss of over Rs 300,000.

The anti-conversion campaign was kicked off by CPI-M Politburo member V S Achutanandan, who has been openly critical of fellow Communist and state Chief Minister E K Nayanar's policies.

"Nayanar is deliberately holding back the police because he doesn't want to anger Achutanandan and worsen the factional feud," a top party source said.

For the last 15 years, more and more rice cultivators have been shifting to the more profitable coconut and rubber cultivations.

The State Planning Board which has studied the issue has recommended that it is unscientific for the government to force farmers to continue with an unremunerative crop when there were other profitable options open to them.