The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has taken decisive steps to uphold secularism while the BJP-led Union government has tried everything to destroy it, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Friday.
Projecting the Left government in Kerala as an alternative, he said his government wants to build a new Kerala over its tenure. He was speaking at a public rally here on Friday to mark the occasion of the first anniversary of the LDF government, at a heavily packed Putharikkandam maithanam.
“Our government intends to protect public sector units. But the Union government is focussing on closing them down one by one. When the Centre tried to close down Instrumentation Ltd. in Palakkad, we took it over. The Centre has consistently taken anti-labourer policies, while our policy is to support them,” he said.
The Centre is trying to steal the State’s rights. They have taken away our right to impose taxes with GST, he said.
Row over beef
He said the State would take an uncompromising stand against the Centre’s moves to control the dietary habits of the citizens through the beef ban.
“What right does a government have to tell the people what they should eat? Our people have very diverse food habits. The government, controlled by the RSS, is trying to destroy the diversity. It is an organisation which follows an ideology similar to Hitler. They have identified internal enemies as part of their ideology,” said the Chief Minister.
On the Secretariat siege by the youth organisations of the BJP and Congress, on the first anniversary of the LDF government, he said those who protested did not even know what they were protesting against. “Were they protesting against our welfare schemes for the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Ttibes? Were they protesting against the 40,000 PSC appointments that we gave in the past one year? Were they protesting against the housing schemes for the poor that we announced?,” he asked.
Criticising Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader Poonam Mahajan who said that women in Kerala were feeling unsafe, he said the brutal gangrape of four women and the murder of the man who accompanied them happened in Yogi Adityanath’s Uttar Pradesh when she was making that speech.
“Not only are the women in Kerala safe, our law and order machinery will provide them strong support whenever they face problems. The women of our State can also react strongly when faced with crisis, as was seen in the case of a Swami recently,” he said.
Kanam flays Centre
CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran who presided over the rally said the Union government had given “achhe din” only to the corporates.
“The BJP State leadership led by Kummanam Rajasekharan runs to the Centre even if a leaf rustles in Kerala. But, they did not try to get any help from the Centre, when the tate was facing an unprecedented drought,” he said.
