C Sadanandan's Rajya Sabha nomination rekindles Kannur's painful past

The irony is sharper still, Janardhanan is also a relative of C Sadanandan, the RSS leader whose nomination to the Upper House has been celebrated by the BJP as a symbol of courage and ideological resolve.

In 1993, Janardhanan was grievously injured in a political attack allegedly led by Sadanandan himself—part of a long and bloody chain of violence between CPI(M) and RSS workers in North Kerala. A year later, in what was widely seen as retaliation, Sadanandan was assaulted and had both his legs severed by a group of CPI (M) workers—an incident that catapulted him into Sangh Parivar iconography.

“I was on my way to work that day when they attacked me near the Mattannur bus stand. I was seriously injured and couldn’t walk properly for years after that. I was hospitalised for nearly a year—and even now, I still can’t do any work,” Janardhanan said. It was during the UDF government, and we received no support to pursue the case. Eventually, they were acquitted,” Janardhanan told The Federal over the phone.

Cycle of vengeance

Noted journalist Ullekh NP, in his book Kannur – Inside India’s Bloodiest Revenge Politics, recounts the tit-for-tat killings that rocked Kannur, Kerala, during the mid-1990s.

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"On the evening of January 25, 1994, the people who had left in a vehicle for a ‘mission’ must have known to each other—they were mostly from around there, all associated with the CPI(M). Around 8.30 pm, they overpowered a political rival who had disembarked from a bus near the Mattanur area of the district, chopped off his limbs below the knees, burst a few bombs to scare away the crowd, and made good their escape."

"The reason for the attack was that the man, Sadanandan ‘Master’ of the RSS, had got one of his own relatives, a CPI(M) branch secretary, badly beaten up at dawn near the Mattanur bus stand—the victim now walks around with a limp. The early morning assault on the CPI(M) local leader followed a heated exchange of words between him and Sadanandan, a well-built, charismatic man who was then employed in a lower primary school, where he had allegedly enticed children from CPI(M) families to attend religious rituals, an unpardonable offence from a Marxist point of view."

Ullekh goes on painting the chilling picture of the cycle of vengeance that defined the political life of Kannur, where personal friendships offered no shield against ideological violence.

“While Sadanandan (Master), the former jilla sahakaryavah (district joint secretary) of the RSS, was being taken to hospital, he sang patriotic songs to fight back the pain. Around the same time, allegedly, RSS volunteers slayed KV Sudheesh, a state-level leader and a rising star of the SFI, right in front of his elderly parents in a relatively RSS-dominated area in the district called Thokkilangadi. As a friend, I knew very well that Sudheesh had no idea he would be the target of a murderous attack. He was convinced that being a mere student leader, and one who was friends with all the RSS workers in the region, he would never be targeted. So, he ignored warnings from party colleagues, advising him to shift to a ‘safer’ location.”

In an interview given during the early years of Malayalam news television, Sadanandan had famously stated, “Had I not been attacked, Sudheesh wouldn’t have been killed.”

Retaliatory killings

During the decade since 1990, a series of high-profile retaliatory killings between the RSS-BJP and the CPI(M) left behind a trail of bloodshed, with not just ordinary workers but key leaders being killed or grievously injured. Among those who lost their lives were BJP’s KT Jayakrishnan, and CPI(M)’s KV Sudheesh. Former CPI(M) MLA P Jayarajan and RSS’s C Sadanandan, both of whom survived brutal attacks, remain as living symbols of that violent chapter.

Sadanandan’s nomination to the Upper House is now being projected by the BJP as both a personal triumph and a political reckoning. National leaders of the saffron party are projecting the nomination as a strong message against what they term as red terror unleashed by the communists in their strongholds. But as stories like that of Janardhanan resurface, it becomes clear that the narrative of victimhood is neither simple nor one-sided.

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Moral statement

The BJP has made no secret of its intent. For a party still struggling to break through Kerala’s entrenched bipolarity, Sadanandan’s nomination is both strategic and emotional.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him as a symbol of resilience who refused to bow before injustice. Kerala BJP leaders call it a “moral statement” against decades of leftist violence, particularly in red strongholds like Kannur.

“He stood for an ideology and paid a brutal price. Now, his voice reaches Parliament,” said a senior BJP state leader.

Within the BJP and RSS, Sadanandan commands immense respect — just for surviving the attack, but for returning to the classroom on prosthetic limbs and continuing as a grassroots organiser and ideological mentor. Supporters say his life story is inspirational and reflects deep personal conviction.

The nomination, made under Article 80(1)(a) of the Constitution, which allows the President to appoint members with expertise in fields like education and public service, is being justified by his long teaching career and social outreach. Detractors, however, argue that it is yet another example of political messaging under the guise of recognition.

“It is someone who was actively involved — both as a planner and participant — in those violent attacks of nineties who has now been appointed to the Rajya Sabha seat meant for eminent individuals from the fields of art, sports, literature, or science. There is no known notable contribution by him in the fields of education or knowledge. Nor is there any record of the people electing him to any public office as a public representative. One must remember that this is the same honour that was once conferred upon personalities like the great poet G Sankara Kurup,” said Ashokan Charuvil, author, who is a left fellow traveller.

“As for C Sadanandan’s Rajya Sabha nomination, it's not about his popularity. Twice he contested from Koothuparamba and pushed to a distant third place both times. But for the RSS, he’s a symbol of the fight against the Left. His nomination is part of their push to bring the party back to its ideological core—hard Hindutva and anti-communism—instead of softening the pitch for wider appeal”, opined Sreejith Divakaran, senior journalist and political commentator.

Many observers believed that ahead of the 2026 elections, the RSS is now firmly calling the shots in Kerala BJP.

The newly-announced list of state office-bearers clearly sidelines loyalists of former state presidents V Muraleedharan and K Surendran — despite Amit Shah reportedly advising Rajeev Chandrasekhar to keep former leaders in the loop on major decisions. The nomination of C Sadanandan to the Rajya Sabha further reinforces this perception, even though the RSS has sought to distance itself, with leaders claiming they had no role or prior knowledge of his elevation.