The outspoken claim of a CPM leader in Kerala that the party has indeed plotted and killed its opponents landed the Marxists in an absolute mess. In his brazen display of medieval thuggery, the local leader seemed to have taken a cue from the party’s state leadership which has unleashed an offensive against the tide of public outrage for its suspected involvement in the murder of a popular CPM-dissident TP Chandrasekharan three weeks ago.