The Kerala BJP has called for an investigation by a Central agency against the CPI(M) and its senior Politburo member and State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan for his statement describing India as a member of a four-nation US-led “imperialist axis” against China, which allegedly amounted to sedition.
Even as former State BJP president, PK Krishnadas, submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi seeking a probe into the suspected financial connections and conspiracy behind the CPI(M)’s pro-China and anti-India stand, party activists took out a protest march to Kodiyeri’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
In the complaint, lodged with the Home Minister, Krishnadas said that a Central agency should probe the Indian communist leaders’ China visits and find out whether the CPI(M) had held discussions with the Chinese Communist Party and whether it had accepted financial assistance from Beijing.
The State BJP called for an investigation by the NIA by registering a case for alleged sedition against Kodiyeri over the alleged pro-China and anti-India statements he made, first at his party’s Alappuzha district conference at Kayamkulam last weekend and then in Kochi on Tuesday at the CPI(M)’s Ernakulam district meet.
Senior BJP leaders termed the CPI(M) leader as a spy of China, accusing him of committing sedition with anti-India statements and said his pro-China statements should be viewed seriously especially as it had come immediately after the disclosure by the Indian Army Chief that China was a bigger threat to India than Pakistan.
“Kodiyeri’s statements have proved that communists are still not prepared to consider India as their motherland. Once upon a time, they had considered Soviet Union as their fatherland and now it is China,” said a BJP leader. The protest march towards Kodiyeri’s house was led by BJP’s Thiruvananthapuram district president S Suresh.
Senior BJP leaders in Kerala said that the anti-India statements by Kodiyeri and other CPI(M) leaders were the symptoms of a deep-rooted disease which needed “proper diagnosis and drastic treatment” and that the Marxists were doing from within the country what China and Pakistan were trying to do from outside.
State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan termed Kodiyeri as a spy of Beijing and wanted the Government to initiate legal proceedings suo moto against him for his statements. “When Kodiyeri is issuing statements against India and in support of China, how can the Home Department of Kerala sit idleIJ” he asked.
Inaugurating the delegates’ session of the Alappuzha district CPI(M) conference at Kayamkulam last weekend, Kodiyeri had termed India as a member of a four-nation “imperialist axis” led by the US which was attacking China from all sides. According to him, Australia and Japan were the other members of this axis.
“The 19th congress of the Chinese Communist Party had decided not to allow any country to interfere in China’s internal affairs. It had also decided that China would not remain silent if any country interfered in another country’s internal affairs. An axis of US, Japan, Australia and India has taken shape for attacking China from all sides,” he had said.
He also criticized America by alleging that it was arming South Korea with the objective of destroying North Korea. Pyongyang was duty-bound to resist this, he said, adding that the US had been blocking through military mobilization the efforts of North Korea for achieving economic growth by using natural resources.
Despite the sharp criticisms that this statement drew, he reiterated the same pro-China, pro-Pyongyang stand on Tuesday at the delegates’ session of the CPI(M)’s Ernakulam district conference in Kochi. He said US, Japan, Australia and India wanted to destroy China because it, like North Korea, was trying to achieve growth through socialist methods.
Rejecting the BJP’s criticisms against him and his party, he said the CPI(M) was not working in accordance with orders issued by the Chinese communist party or the Russian communist party. “The CPI(M) has always been observing the developments in countries pursuing the path of socialist construction and has been expressing its opinion,” he said.