Kerala, which was once famed as God’s Own Country, has become fundamentalists’ own country, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.
Speaking at Tripunithura in connection with Vijay Yatra, the political rally led by Bharatiya Janata Party State president K. Surendran, Ms. Sitharaman said the slogans of 1921 Mappila Rebellion, which according to her was a Hindu genocide, were being repeated in Kerala. Yet, the Left Democratic Front government was not worried about it as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was in tacit alliance with the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), she alleged.
“I just do not want to hear the slogan being raised once again in the State,” said Ms. Sitharaman after reciting the slogan. The Finance Minister said there were also attempts to celebrate the anniversary of the “1921 Hindu genocide” in Kerala.
The CPI(M) was not merely into minority appeasement but appeasement of fundamentalists. Kerala shall no longer keep quite to such practices, she said.
The LDF government gave permission to the SDPI to hold a protest march in Kasaragod when Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath came to inaugurate the Vijay Yatra. It was shame on Pinarayi Vijayan to give permission for the protest meeting, she said.
Political violence
The Union Finance Minister said the law-and-order situation had worsened in the State and political violence had become rampant.
She listed out the Walayar rape cases, killing of Congress workers Sarathlal and Kripesh and the slaying of RSS leader Nandu Krishnan in Alappuzha as some of the examples of the rampant violence in the State. The CPI(M) was trying out political violence in Kerala, which it tried in West Bengal, she said.
While alleging that the State government was neck-deep in corruption, the Finance Minister said the Union government had extended copious support to the State though there was no BJP MP from the State in the Lok Sabha.
