RSS leader Mohan Bhagawat’s remarks that Kerala, along with West Bengal, was protecting anti-national forces for political mileage have triggered a three-way verbal sparring between CPI(M), Congress and the BJP leaders, each blaming the other for the cult of political violence in the State.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lost no time in reacting to Mr. Bhagawat’s statement, stating that it was a challenge to each Keralite, as such statements attributing anti-national propensities were the outcome of the frustration of the RSS and BJP leaders for their failure to communally divide the State. This was followed by Union Minister Prakash Javedkar stating that the “Marxist” in CPI(M) was Maoist.
Mr. Vijayan, who is currently in Delhi, said certain Central Ministers were indulging in statements that belittled Kerala and its people. Responding to the mediapersons’ queries, he said the Central leaders should observe the basic principles of the country’s federal polity.
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Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, in a statement, said that the RSS was trying to depict Kerala as a centre for jihadi activists out of sheer frustration. But he did not spare the Chief Minister, who was inclined to issue statements against the RSS-BJP leaders and disinclined to register cases against them for gross violation of laws.
The LDF government had failed to pursue cases against the RSS chief for unfurling the national flag in violation of the existing rules, K.P. Sasikala for her inflammatory speeches, and the BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan for circulating fake photographs to vitiate the communal situation.
“It was the Chief Minister’s soft approach towards the RSS-BJP combine that emboldened them to continue with the dubious political work,” the Opposition leader said.
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Communal forces had always made political capital by dividing the people through false propaganda, violence and money power. The BJP-RSS agenda had never grown roots in the State and all attempts to make an electoral breakthrough had been frustrated by the secular- minded people, he said.
Mr. Kummanam Rajasekharan, whose 15-day Janaraksha yatra apparently triggered the verbal sparring, said in his Facebook post that Kerala had become a safe haven for anti-national forces because of the untenable positions taken by successive governments in the State.
The BJP leader listed out several instances where the UDF and the LDF had gone out of the way to extend protection to such people.