The BJP’s Jana Raksha Yatra in Kerala against ‘Jehadi and Red Terror’ on its third day, Thursday, tore through some of the strongest fortresses of the CPI(M) in Kannur including Pinarayi, the native village of Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, despite an undeclared shutdown imposed by the CPI(M) party on the area.
Party chief Amit Shah, who was scheduled to lead the Padayatra (foot march) on Thursday, could not make it to Kannur reportedly due to some unavoidable programmes in Delhi, but his absence did not dampen the spirit of the thousands of BJP workers who walked the 12.5 kilometers from Mambaram to Thalassery with unwavering determination and enthusiasm.
State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan, captain of the Yatra, said, “Amit Shah has been forced to stay back in Delhi because of urgent and unavoidable programmes. Being the national president of the party, he cannot avoid them.” The Yatra on the third day was led also by several national leaders and State general secretaries and national executive members from the State.
Thousands of villagers defied the undeclared shutdown of the CPI(M) in Pinarayi, also the birthplace of Kerala’s communist movement, accorded enthusiastic reception at various points to the Jana Raksha Yatra that turned the streets of the Marxist strongholds virtually into a saffron-green river, amidst tight security cover provided by an almost 1,000-strong police posse.
Expecting Amit Shah to lead Thursday’s Padayatra, the CPI(M) had put up boards containing slogans in English and pictures of party workers allegedly killed by RSS-BJP on both sides of the road in the areas, especially Pinarayi, through which the march passed. Shops and commercial establishments in the region remained closed due to the undeclared shutdown.
Stating that the Yatra, raising the slogans, “All have to live” and “Against Jehadi and Red terror”, was not against the State of Kerala as the Marxists were alleging but against their politics of violence and the government they were leading, Kummanam said, “The reception the Yatris are getting from the people even in Pinarayi is a direct warning to the CPI(M).”
Thursday’s Padayatra concluded at Thalassery with a public meeting at which Kummanam and other leaders unleashed blistering attacks against the Marxists. “The CPI(M) has grown extremely intolerant. It is intolerant as it does not know how to proceed with its politics. Because of this it is physically attacking all rivals,” the State BJP president said.
leaders including national general secretary Arun Singh visited the house of martyred BJP-RSS worker C Ramith to pay homage to him. He was brutally hacked to death by a Marxist killer gang almost a year ago in front of his house, which is just a stone’s throw away from the house of Chief Minister Vijayan. Ramith’s father Uthaman was also killed by the Marxists, in 2002.
Ramith’s mother Narayani told the leaders that her husband and son were murdered by the same forces and appealed to them to ensure that the killers got the punishment they deserved. Arun Singh said incidents of father and son being killed by the same forces were rare in India. Chief Minister Pinarayi should be fearful at least of God, he added.
Shah had flagged off the march on Tuesday at Payyannur, Kannur, and had led the first day’s 9-km Padayatra from there to Pilathara. The 8-km second leg of the Padayatra from Keecheri to Kannur city on Wednesday was led by UP CM Yogi Adityanath. The Yatra’s Kannur phase will conclude on Friday with a Padayatra from Panur to Koothuparambu.
The Jana Raksha Yatra will conclude on October 17 at State capital, Thiruvananthapuram, after covering 11 of the 14 districts in Kerala. Amit Shah may be leading a Padayatra from Sreekaryam in the capital district, where RSS Karyawah Rajesh was brutally murdered by Marxist killers on July 29, to the venue of the concluding function.