From God’s Own Country, Kerala has transformed into God’s “forsaken” country, a BJP MP said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, coming down hard on the LDF government for “failing” to contain the killing of RSS and BJP workers.
Raising the issue during zero hour, Meenakshi Lekhi alleged that political opponents were being killed in “Talibani style” in the State and even workers of the Congress, CPI, and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had been targeted.
Another BJP MP Prahlad Joshi said 17 BJP and RSS workers were killed in Kerala in the last 17 months and demanded a probe into the deaths by either the CBI or the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Mr. Joshi alleged that terrorists were involved in the killings.
Comments by Mr. Joshi and Ms. Lekhi drew sharp reaction from the MPs of the Left parties, who countered them vociferously.
Ms. Lekhi read out names of 14 BJP and RSS workers who were allegedly killed in Kerala in the last few months and wondered whether anyone in the House knew their names. “People will immediately connect if someone talks about Pehlu Khan or Akhlaq. But nobody knows about the people killed in Kerala,” she said.
In a hard-hitting attack on the LDF government, she alleged that seven children from the families of RSS and BJP workers were targeted. “A total of 40 Congress workers alone were killed in Kannur,” she claimed.
