Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Monday expressed happiness at the manner in which the State responded to attempts to degrade the late R. Sankar’s exalted status and convert the related function into a programme of the Sangh Parivar.
In a Facebook post, he said his participation in the function, relating to the unveiling of the former CM’s statue was not a personal affair. The decision to keep the Chief Minister away from the function attended by the Prime Minister after inviting him amounted to an affront to the people of Kerala. The Chief Minister should have participated in the function — that happened to be the Prime Minister’s first in the State and that too related to a revered Congress leader — on all counts, including that of basic courtesy and protocol norms. He had no issues had the function been a programme of the BJP.
“R. Sankar was a leader who never ever agreed to the policies, tenets and philosophy of the erstwhile Jana Sangh. He gave leadership in propagating the teachings of Sree Narayana Guru as the leader of the SNDP and the SN Trust and never compromised in nurturing the spiritual traditions of the guru. How can a function related to unveiling his statue become a BJP programme?,” Mr. Chandy said.
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