The BJP, whose all-Kerala Jana Raksha Yatra against ‘Jehadi and Red Terror’ is currently progressing through the Malabar region, on Saturday lashed out at the CPI(M)-led lDF Government for its alleged soft approach towards Jehadi forces even as the left stepped up its offensive against the BJP by focusing their attacks on its national chief Amit Shah.
The Government’s stand in the SC that there was no aspect that warranted NIA probe in the Akhila/Hadia case of alleged love Jehad regarding the conversion of a Hindu girl into Islam and her court-invalidated marriage with a Muslim youth proved its soft approach towards Jehadi forces, State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan said.
“It is obvious that Kerala’s lDF Government is soft on Jehadis. On what grounds had it decided that there was no need of an NIA probe in the caseIJ Several evidences of the terror links of Shaffin Jahan had been produced in the Kerala HC but the Government is neglecting them,” Kummanam said.
“The lDF and the Congress-led UDF have all the way been providing encouragement to the Jehadis. For the same reason, these two fronts are a big danger as far as the country is concerned,” Kummanam, captain of the 15-day Jana Raksha Yatra, said at a reception accorded to the march at Vadakara in Kozhikode district.
The Yatra, flagged off on Tuesday by Amit Shah at Payyannur, completed its tour of Kozhikode district on Saturday. It had covered Kannur, known as Kerala’s Marxist heartland, in the first four days. The focus would shift from Red terror to Jehadi terror when it enters Muslim-majority Malappuram district, where Islamist outfit Popular Front of India has a strong base, on Sunday.
Rejecting the CPI(M)’s allegation that the Yatra in Kannur had turned out to be a “wet cracker”, BJP leaders claimed that the active presence of “tens of thousands in it in rain and shine” was proof of its success. They said the Yatra, by the time of its conclusion in Thiruvananthapuram on October 17, would have paved the foundation for political change in Kerala.
The Yatra on its fifth day began with leaders paying floral tributes to Vadikkal Ramakrishnan, the first RSS worker to be murdered by CPI(M) activists in Kannur district, at the spot in Thalassery where he fell prey to the Marxists’ daggers. It concluded with a public meeting on Saturday evening in Kozhikode city, to where it reached in a Padayatra from Elathur.
The participation of Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Sadananda Gowda in the march, including the Padayatra, enhanced the spirit and enthusiasm of the thousands of BJP workers in the Yatra. Other Central and State leaders and functionaries of the party from the neighbouring states also took part in the march.
Meanwhile, the left stepped up its campaign offensive against the BJP in the context of its Jana Raksha Yatra, by targeting their attacks on party chief Amit Shah. State CPI secretary Kanam Rajendran on Saturday said it was strange that Shah, who he said could not enter his home State Gujarat for seven years due to a Supreme Court order, was now trying to defame Kerala.
“Nobody should forget such truths. Shah has now come to Kerala by hiding these things,” he said in Thiruvananthapuram, adding that Shah and his party had turned against Kerala as they were ignorant of its rich social life and great tradition of renaissance. He also accused the BJP of trying to create turbulence in Kerala society.
State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had the other day described Shah as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Kerala’s left and the Congress alike had said that Shah’s failure to turn up in Kannur on Thursday to lead the foot march on Thursday showed his conviction that the Yatra had become a huge failure within two days.
As part of its campaign against the BJP, the CPI(M) will organize ‘Save-Democracy’ conventions at all the district headquarters on Monday evening with the participation of all willing cultural and social leaders. The party will also launch major campaign through its committees at various levels after the October 11 Assembly by-poll in Vengara, Malappuram.