The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded the constitution of a Special Investigation Team under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or under a sitting judge of the High Court or the Supreme Court to probe into what it termed were attacks on its cadre and supporters in Kerala by workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)].
Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, a five-member team of BJP MPs, led by Rajya Sabha member Bhoopendra Yadav — that toured Kannur on Saturday — said the probe must cover not only attacks on BJP workers but also on other political party workers. The probe should concentrate on the attacks that took place after the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) came to power, Mr. Yadav said.
Attack on people’s rights
The actual government of Kerala was being run from the AKG Centre. The onslaught on BJP workers was in reality an attack on the fundamental right of people to have different political ideologies. There is violence even in the native village of the Chief Minister, Mr. Yadav said. The BJP accepted the challenge thrown by the CPI(M) to the right to expression in Kerala, he said.
Team member and BJP national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said Pinarayi Vijayan should remember that he was now the Chief Minister of a State and not just the leader of a political party. As Chief Minister, Mr. Vijayan had failed to control the atrocities against BJP workers. More than 200 workers had been attacked and 200 houses burnt in Kannur alone, she said. There should also be a probe into what Ms. Lekhi said were unnatural deaths of three BJP councillors in the State.
The BJP team — MPs Nalin Kumar Kateel, Ananth Hegde, and H. Raja were the other members — earlier met the Governor and the Home Secretary and presented a ‘fact sheet’ of the attacks against BJP workers in the State.
