The State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxists), G.V. Sriram Reddy, said in Mangalore on Tuesday that the Sangh Parivar is using the State’s coastal region, particularly Dakshina Kannada, as a “laboratory” for its communal experiments.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of a workshop on communalism held by the party.
Mr. Reddy said Dakshina Kannada and the coastal region had a tradition of fighting injustice but the communal forces were gaining strength in the region with guidance from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and supported by the chief of Pejawar math, who pretended to be a supporter of Dalit cause by undertaking padayatra.
After Dakshina Kannada, Kerala was the laboratory for the BJP to experiment its communal agenda. The CPI (M) was against all types of communalism, whether of majority or minority, and was against fundamentalism. Unlike the Congress, which pursues votes based on religion, there was no such worry for the CPI (M), which was very that it had nothing to do with religion, he said.
The BJP government had impoverished the State and was “a government on a ventilator”, whose lifeline could be pulled anytime by the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. He said the government was communal, impoverished, and was saffronising education.
He said that a majority communalism was an issue throughout the State. As an example, he spoke about the instance of violence in Hubli following the issue of cow slaughter. Police officers, who were supposed to protect the law, were seen apologising to the wrongdoers. It showed the extent to which the BJP had used the police.
The seeds of communalism were sown when L.K. Advani became the Minister for Information and Broadcasting. It was after this that the ‘Ramayana’ teleserial was aired on TV and the Ramjanambhoomi issue came up, he alleged.
Several communal events had taken place in Sindgi, Belgaum, where two people lost their lives, and in Koppal, Hubli and Chintamani, he alleged. He questioned the police for filing a B report against RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat for, what Mr. Reddy alleged, his provocative speech made in Uppinangady sometime ago.
In Udupi, in 2005, violence broke out against minorities but no one was sent to jail. Action was not taken against the wrongdoers in the homestay attack case, he alleged.
In Bangalore, garbage had not been collected for so many days and the issue had been highlighted in the U.S. media. If a government could not clear garbage in a city, it could not do much elsewhere, he said. So much communal incidents were taking place in Dakshina Kannada but the government had done nothing to prevent such incidents. The situation had arisen in the State because of the BJP government, he said.
K.R. Sriyan, CPI(M) Dakshina Kannada District Secretariat Member, said on the one hand, there was majority communalism, on the other hand, there was minority communalism.
Protest against made snana
The CPI(M) will launch State-wide protests against made snana at Kukke Subrahmanya Temple and against pankthi bedha (serving meals separately to Brahmins), which is supported by the BJP government, in December, said State Secretary of the party G.V. Sriram Reddy. He said a vehicle procession would be taken out from the Temple Town to Mangalore. Another vehicle procession to protest against pankthi bedha from Byndoor would end at Udupi temple.
A politcal ‘jaatha’ will be held against BJP on November 20 at Basavakalyan, Ramdurg and Belgaum.
