Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State unit president Kummanam Rajasekharan has said that his party would meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to request him to deploy Central forces in Kerala to contain what he described as violence unleashed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] cadre against BJP workers.
Mr. Rajasekharan was speaking to reporters after inaugurating a day-long convention organised by the BJP for the protection and strengthening of the cooperative sector in the State.
Mr. Rajasekharan said here on Tuesday that the State police were protecting the perpetrators of violence against BJP cadre and that the police under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had turned into communist “comrades.”
He referred to several incidents, including developments in Kannur where a camp organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was attacked and the school where it was being held sustained damage in the attacks.
Such camps were organised throughout the State and if anyone had anything against them they should resort to the established procedures and not take law into their own hands.
A situation had arisen in the State in which only the CPI(M) cadre could move freely while freedom of others was curtailed through violent means. He said that as Minister in charge of Home, Mr. Vijayan must step in to stem the tide of violence against BJP workers.
Earlier, inaugurating the convention, he said Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac and others were spreading fear among the people of Kerala about the demonetisation of high-value currency notes and subsequent controls over cooperative banks.
The State unit of the BJP had always sided with the cooperatives and the party wanted them to be protected and strengthened. But cooperative societies and banks should operate in a transparent manner and they should not be used to help those who work against the interest of the cooperative sector itself.
