Alleging that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is responsible for political violence in the State, BJP national president Amit Shah has said that the culture of violence in the State can be curbed only if the dominance of the CPI(M) is brought to an end.
Addressing a large gathering of party workers here on Tuesday after flagging off the Janaraksha Yatra led by the party’s State president Kummanam Rajasekharan to mobilise public opinion against what the party termed ‘red and jihadi terror’ in the State, Mr. Shah held Mr. Vijayan responsible for the violence in the State.
Of over 120 BJP and RSS workers murdered by CPI(M) activists in different parts of the State over the past few decades, 84 were in Mr. Vijayan’s home district of Kannur, he said.
“Kerala is a land of peace and social reforms,” he said naming a host of social reformers, including Sree Narayana Guru. This peaceful land was now blood-stained because of the dominance of the Communists, he said adding that wherever the Communists had been in power, they resorted to violence.
Mr. Shah also flayed people who ‘champion human rights’ for their alleged silence on the Communists’ ‘political intolerance’ and ‘violence’. These ‘champions’, he said, should know that violence has no colour.
Referring to his meeting with members of the families of slain Sangh Parivar workers in the district, Mr. Shah said that the ‘martyrdom’ of these workers would not go waste. They would serve as an inspiration for BJP workers, he said adding that if Mr. Vijayan was trying to turn Kerala into a pool of dirt, lotus would grow out of that. The BJP was now ruling in 80% of the geographical area of the country, he said exuding confidence that the party’s campaign was just the beginning of a journey that would eventually result in changes in the State’s political scenario.
Marches in Delhi
He said the Janaraksha Yatra was not a campaign confined to Kerala. BJP workers in New Delhi would organise ‘padayatras’ (foot marches) daily to the CPI(M)’s central committee office in the capital till October 17 when the Janaraksha Yatra would conclude in Thiruvananthapuram. The party would also organise similar marches in State capitals across the country till October 17 to mobilise public opinion against ‘CPI(M)-sponsored violence’ and to express solidarity with BJP workers in the State, he said.
The BJP president joined the yatra on the first day of the campaign from here to Pilathara, covering a distance of around 8 km. He was scheduled to join the yatra on October 5 when it would pass through Pinarayi, the native place of the Chief Minister.
