BJP National President Amit Shah has said that the CPI(M) was living in a fool’s paradise if it believes that its ‘kill-or-maim’ politics would prevent his party from gaining ground in Kerala.
Shah was addressing thousands of party workers at the concluding ceremony of the 15-day Janaraksha Yatra led by Kummanam Rajasekharan, President of the BJP State unit.
The BJP chief warned that the people would throw the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left government in Kerala if it did not mend its ways and stop its murderous politics.
He sought to pick on a statement of CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, who wondered if it was right for the BJP to take out ‘mirror yatras’ to its headquarters in Delhi.
“Unlike your party, Mr Yechury, we don’t blow up offices of the rival party. We conduct our protest marches in a peaceful and democratic manner,” Shah said.
He told the gathering that it must reflect on the circumstances that forced the BJP to take out the Janaraksha Yatra from the North to the South of Kerala.
“The most compelling reason was that the BJP-RSS workers were not free to practise their ideology, and if they did, they risked their very lives as has been proved in countless number of cases,” Shah said.
That the BJP was forced to take out a yatra to seek its deserved space in State politics after 70 years of Independence only points to the murderous politics of the CPI(M), the BJP chief said.
Shah asked Chief Minister Vijayan if the mandate he received from the people after ousting the Congress-led government was just seek out, maim and kill BJP-RSS workers. “What else does the CPI(M) line of politics mean?” Shah asked, citing the murder of 13 activists of BJP-RSS since the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government came to power in 2016.
The BJP National President asked the Chief Minister to leave his destructive politics behind and work for the development for the State.
Shah said the BJP would be more than willing to pit itself against the CPI(M) in the war against unbridled poverty and rampant malnutrition rather than hunt down political rivals.
“It is not as if the murderous politics of the Marxists is entirely new to us. We’ve been through this and more, but survived thanks to our strong will and resolve,” Shah said.
Shah recounted statistics to say that the murders have happened whenever the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front has ruled Kerala. During 1996 to 2001, the BJP-RSS lost 30 of the cadres while in 200-2011, the number of 28.
This trend has resumed since 2016 after the CPI(M) came to power with 13 lives having already been lost, he added.
CPI(M) holds march Meanwhile, countering the BJP’s Jan Raksha rallies, the CPI(M) held yet another march to the BJP headquarters in Delhi on Tuesday. Inaugurating the protest, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the Sangh Parivar was trying to build their political and social base through violence and terror. He said the BJP will not see even one MLA in the Kerala Assembly if they continue to create violence. “If the BJP thinks it can remove the red flag from the country, then they are mistaken, as the flag has removed fascist forces from the world,” he said.