Thiruvananthapuram, May 18 (IANS) In a shocking development that came to light on Saturday, Kerala CPI(M) Secretary MV Govindan plans to inaugurate on May 22 a memorial that has been built to honour two party workers who lost their lives while making bombs in June 2015.

Party workers Shaiju and Subish died when the blast took place and four others were seriously injured at Panoor in Kannur.

Soon after the blast took place, BJP activists accused the CPI(M) of harbouring bomb-makers.

On Saturday morning TV channels here aired the response of the then CPI(M) state Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, which came soon after the 2015 incident.

“How come the BJP was quick to say that those killed were CPI(M) party workers. Those who were killed had nothing to do with the CPI(M) and they are not party workers,” Balakrishnan had said then.

However, despite Balakrishnan’s denial, then Kannur district CPI(M) Secretary P Jayarajan was in the forefront during the funeral.

Now, the memorial is coming up at the land owned by the party and it has been built through crowd funding and will be inaugurated after a party rally and meeting led by Govindan on Wednesday.

Incidentally, it was in the same area last month during campaigning season at Panoor that a person engaged in bomb-making died.

Govindan came out with a quick denial that the person, identified as Sherin, had anything to do with the CPI(M).

However, local CPI(M) leaders visited Sherin’s house and this had come under fire from the Congress-led Opposition.

Reacting to the news of the memorial coming up, veteran Congress Legislator and former Kerala Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said the CPI(M) is known for its hypocrisy as it says one thing and does the opposite.

“First they deny any connection and then they turn them into martyrs of the party. The party does this to send the message to all that it will always back whatever its workers do. This memorial is a posthumous award given to their cadres,” said Radhakrishnan.

Former Director General of Prosecution, T Asaf Ali said that in the last three decades the CPI(M), which has quite a few feeder organisations, has added one more unit and it’s the ‘bomb-making unit’ and all those who fall victim while doing their work get the status of a martyr.