Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has refuted Prime Minister's statement in Parliament that extremist groups are infiltrating the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests.
“The statement of the Prime Minister about Kerala, made during the motion of thanks to the President's address, was untrue and condemnable,” Mr. Vijayan wrote on his Facebook page on Friday in response to Mr. Modi's quoting his purported statement that extremist elements had infiltrated the anti-CAA protests. The Prime Minister quoted Mr. Vijayan in Rajya Sabha on February 6 apparently to outmanoeuvre the Opposition.
“My remarks on extremist organisations such as the SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) were made in good faith,” the Chief Minister said. Alleging that Mr. Modi's statement in Rajya Sabha ‘maligns the protests in Kerala,’ he said that it was unbefitting of a Prime Minister to be part of those who were disappointed with the fact that Kerala was leading the struggle against communalist elements of both the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the SDPI.
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Stating that Kerala would not concede ground to forces willing to use anti-CAA protests as an opportunity for communal polarisation, Mr. Vijayan said that people had been warned of such infiltrators and that proper caution had been exercised. “Our secular State has the strength to fend off any sort of infiltrators in this movement as well,” he said.
People from all walks of life transcending religious and caste lines joined the protests, the Chief Minister said. People living in such a society “don't need an external tutelage to separate the genuine protest from those opportunists who are trying to sow communal polarisation,” he said.