Denial of permission to CM shows RSS intolerance: Raja

Senior Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja has said that denial of permission to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to attend a function in Bhopal has exposed the intolerance of the Sangh Parivar.

Inaugurating the State conference of the All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation (AIPSO) here on Sunday, Mr. Raja took strong exception to the denial of permission to Mr. Vijayan to attend the function organised in Bhopal on Saturday. Holding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government ruling Madhya Pradesh responsible for the denial of permission, the CPI leader said that it betrayed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) intolerance. It was also a violation of the Constitution, he said.

‘‘In India, the right wing fascism is showing its true colours,’’ the CPI leader said calling on the people to fight intolerance. The Sangh Parivar today claims to have the prerogative to decide who is patriotic and who is not, he said adding that the RSS was posing a threat to the integrity of the country.

He alleged that the Narendra Modi government was showing contempt for Parliament.

Observing that peace and solidarity were closely linked with politics and economic development, Mr. Raja said the economic systems driven by greed were furthering inequality in the world. The United States, with its imperialist agenda, wanted to subjugate the countries in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and South Asia by creating political uncertainties in those countries, he said.

‘‘We should be cautious of the U.S. imperialism in our region,’’ he warned. He said that economic policies in the countries across the world, including the U.S. and India, were being pushed to the right.

Presiding over the function, CPI leader and former Minister Binoy Viswam said that the attempt of ‘imperialism’ to equate terrorism with Islam was to create Islamophobia in the minds of the people. Extremism of all hues were anti-human, he said.

AIPSO all India general secretary Nilolpal Basu delivered the keynote address. C.P. Narayanan, MP, CPI(M) leader V. Sivadasan, veteran journalist M. Abdurrahiman, and CPI district secretary P. Santhosh Kumar were among those who spoke.