To understand what happened in Kannur in north Kerala, where on the night of February 15 a 27-year-old RSS activist Sujith was murdered, in keeping with the rituals of political murders in the state, by a million cuts, we need to know that fate works its devious tricks on many fronts seemingly unconnected. That ideology, usually a prime suspect, is just one of them.

The popular theory in Kerala - which is facing Assembly polls in April - that explains the killing is the abiding violence of the CPM versus RSS politics typical of Kannur. It is just one of the nails in Sujith's coffin.

In the past decade alone, close to 90 political murders have occurred in Kerala. The CPM claims, with a measure of pride, that 60 per cent of the victims are from its cadre. Nearly 30 per cent of the victims are from RSS/BJP fold. The rest are, to use a facetious psephology metaphor, Independents.

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