Kerala’s ruling CPI(M) and the BJP-RSS leadership will direct their respective followers to keep their counsels and not be provoked into attacks against each other. The decision was taken at a meeting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had with the RSS-BJP leadership on Monday.
The meeting capped an eventful week that saw the rival parties attack each others’ offices and houses and damage cars and other assets.
The Chief Minister is learned to have called the meeting with the BJP-RSS in this context, to which the latter responded promptly. Vijayan told newspersons after the two-hour-long meeting that the recent attacks on the BJP State office and houses and property were ‘unfortunate’. The house of the son of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, State Secretary of the CPI(M), too was among those targeted.
All-party meet on Aug 6 The Chief Minister said that these had violated an understanding reached at an all-party meeting held three months ago in almost a similar context.
A second all-party meeting is scheduled to be held here on August 6 while bilateral consultations will be held locally in between in Kannur, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram districts. Party leaders in Thiruvananthapuram will meet locally as early as on Tuesday, said Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who was also present at the meeting.
The Chief Minister chose to address the media alone while the BJP State President Kummanam Rajasekharan and top RSS leader Gopalankutty Master met them separately.
Rajasekharan said the BJP and the RSS would support all initiatives of the State government to promote peace.
‘Free up police’ However, he faulted the CPI(M) for reducing the State police to the status of hit-men let loose by a ‘biased administration on random targets’.
Meanwhile, six persons who are alleged to have been involved directly in the murder the RSS activist are in police custody. Two others are at large.