As the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Janaraksha Yatra entered Kozhikode district on Saturday, party leaders were seen pulling out all stops to counter the campaign that the yatra had lost its steam after party president Amit Shah abruptly cut short his participation.
Also, senior leaders such as Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and party State president Kummanam Rajasekharan tried their best to turn the tables on the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] by accusing the ruling party of engaging in violence on the one hand and being reluctant to address people’s concerns on the other. Mr. Rajasekharan also spoke about the Hadiya case, calling the recent affidavit of the State government in the Supreme Court “a surrender before terrorists.”
Alleging that the Kerala government was not willing to reduce State taxes on petroleum products to help the people, Mr. Pradhan claimed that the CPI(M), which called itself the “party of the poor”, had no real concern for the oppressed.
“The frequent rise in prices of petroleum products is causing inconvenience to the people. The Union government decided to cut down its taxes and advised the States to do the same. But, the Kerala government stuck to their stand that there was no question of doing it,” he alleged.
About the Hadiya case, Mr. Rajasekharan alleged that the State government’s volte face in the Supreme Court claiming that there was no need for a probe by the National Investigation Agency in the case was a bid to appease “terrorists”. “Their aim is the minority vote bank in the Vengara Assembly bypoll. No one is questioning the right to convert to a religion. We are demanding a probe into the terror links,” he said. Terror groups grew in Kerala because the Congress and the CPI(M) were not keen on taking action against the accused in the Marad riots, he added. Earlier, the yatra was given a reception in Elathur, Vadakara and Koyilandy.
