“I am not sure whether I would survive another such attack” – Vinu Swamy

Comrade-turned Swami earns CPM ire

Pioneer News Service | Kannur

Even as the young Marxists are continuing their discriminatory attacks against Hindu spiritual personalities in the context of the LDF Government’s official hunt for fake godmen in Kerala, a former DYFI activist, who is now living a spiritual life of his own choice, has become the victim of the young Red’s ire for no reasons a normal human being would understand.

Sadhu Vinod of Payyannur, Kannur, is preparing to approach the Human Rights Commission on the attack the comrades of his Poorvashram carried out on him on May 22 for some reasons which the spiritualist is yet to understand. Vinod was brutally manhandled on May 22 by DYFI activists, who carried out a riot of destruction at his poor ‘ashram’ in a rural setting, crushing furniture and smashing windowpanes.

The assailants forcibly cut his long hair and beard and beat him up so brutally that he had to take immediate medical help.

The young Swami, who at some point of time in his ‘revolutionary’ life as a DYFI activist had decided to part ways with the Reds due to his love for spirituality and environment, still does not know why he was targeted by his former comrades.

“I have never claimed that I am a godman. I don’t do any healing job or perform miracles. I don’t conduct any mass charity programmes. I am an ordinary human being interested in spirituality and environment living accordingly,” Vinod told mediapersons.

The abode of Sadhu Vinod was one of the first places to be ransacked by the DYFI activists after they launched their State-wide marches and attacks against the facilities of Hindu Swamis, both good and bad. Neighbours of Vinod agreed that there were no reasons for the DYFI to attack him. Viond said that he should have approached the Human Rights Commission and the police immediately after the incident but “I am coming out of the hospital after treatment only now”.

“This should not happen to anybody else. I must say these things now because I don’t know whether I will be able to say this at a later stage. I am not sure whether I would survive another such attack,” he said.

Police officials and neigbhours said there were no complaints of any kind against Vinod. “There were no complaints of faith-healing or mass activities like charity. He is a simple man living a very simple life. The only activities taking place at his Ashram are spiritual discourses and discussions on environment. Environmentalists used to hold meetings there. Otherwise there were no activity that could be linked to even spiritual work,” said a man living in the neighbourhood. District DYFI leaders also had no specific charge to make against Vinod.

The spiritualist is using a recess in a cave in a corner of his one-acre Ashram plot as his living quarters. The DYFI says that this land should come under surplus land, but Vinod points out that this was in te possession of his father.

The attack against Vinod has infuriated the Hindu organisations, which have since the start of the present godman-hunt been arguing that the LDF Government, the CPI(M) and its affiliate organisations were targeting Hindu sanyasis. Local people in Payyannur said that it was a normal practice of the Marxists to attack those who defect from their side at any available opportunity and this could well be an example of this intolerance, especially as Vinod had left DYFI to become a spiritualist.

The Hindu Vimochana Sangham asked the DYFI to stop its ‘goonda activity’ of attacking Hindu temples and Hindu Sanyasis in the name of fake godmen. Sangham’s State organizer Acharya Yogi Suryanarayana Baba said in Kochi that DYFI programmes, including forcibly cutting the hair of Sanyasis, could not be allowed.

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