The BJP on Tuesday issued a stern warning to the CPI(M) over the politics of violence it was allegedly pursuing in Kerala after a 33-year-old Mahila Morcha activist, Vimala, of Kanjikode, Palakkad succumbed to the burn injuries she had suffered when an lPG cylinder exploded at her house soon after Marxists torched a motorbike parked at her house on December 28.
Inaugurating the BJP’s State committee meeting organised as part of the three-day leadership conferences in Kottayam, State president Kummanam Rajasekharan said that the BJP would not allow the CPI(M) to destroy it through violence against workers. What the people of Kerala were cherishing for was peace, he said.
Addressing the meeting, Nalin Kumar Kateel, party MP from Dakshina Kannada, said that a situation would arise in the other states in the country where the CPI(M) would realize the actual strength of the BJP workers if that party was determined to go ahead with attacks against BJP workers in Kerala.
“The CPI(M) will find itself to be on the run in Karnataka if it goes ahead with its attacks on BJP workers in Kerala,” Kateel said, adding that ten BJP workers had been killed in the lDF’s 7-month rule. Vimala had succumbed to the burn injuries on Monday while C Radhakrishnan, brother of her husband, had died on January 6 due to the burns he suffered in the same attack.
Kummanam said the statements Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was repeatedly making against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were indications of the CPI(M)’s policy based on political intolerance. “The Chief Minister is not sparing the BJP even when he is speaks at a venue like that of the State Schools Art Festival,” Kummanam said.
While inaugurating the 57th Kerala State Schools Art Festival at Kannur the other day, Pinarayi had come down heavily on the BJP over its State general secretary AN Radhakrishnan’s criticisms against filmmaker Kamal over his protests related to a police action in a National Anthem-related case and Jnanpith winner MT Vasudevan Nair for criticizing demonetization.
“The CPI(M) and the Congress are attacking the BJP with cheap criticisms. The CPI(M) is running away from the people’s problems by diverting public attention towards the BJP,” Kummanam said. Nobody had any problem when the Khadi Commission had issued a calendar with nobody’s picture and when Modi’s picture was printed, it became a controversy,” he said.
Meanwhile, the leadership is planning to strengthen the NDA’s foundation in the State by roping in parties like the Kerala Congress (M) of KM Mani who had resigned as Finance minister from the former Congress-led UDF government following the bar bribery scam. The KC(M) is presently not a constituent of the UDF and is sitting as a separate bloc in the Assembly.
The move is part of the State BJP’s plan to focus its energies on making use of the political situation prevailing in Kerala presently for strengthening it further with an eye on the 2019 lok Sabha election. The party’s effort now would be to work hard to become the main Opposition party in the State.
State BJP general secretary MT Ramesh said that his party had not closed its doors to other parties including the KC(M). The BJP thinks that a party does not become tainted just because its leader is facing allegations of corruption. However, no discussions had been held with Mani’s party, Ramesh said in Kottayam.
The BJP was trying to be an alternative to both the CPI(M)-led ruling lDF and the Opposition-led UDF and the possibility of forming such an alternative did exist in the State, he said. The BJP’s doors were open to parties those could cooperate with it in this endeavour he said, adding that the BJP had its ways of expanding this alternative.
The party also reached an understanding not to penalize national executive member and former State president CK Padmanabhan and State general secretary AN Radhakrishnan over their controversial statements on Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara and noted Kerala filmmaker Kamal respectively with regard to the ongoing nationalism debate.