Congress resorting to appeasement politics in Kerala: BJP

The BJP on Saturday accused the Congress of resorting to “disruptive appeasement” politics by being open to accepting the Jamaat-e-Islami’s support in the upcoming Kerala Assembly polls and exhorted people to unite against the party to prevent the state from descending into a “serious crisis”.

This came a day after the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, VD Satheesan, said the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) will accept the Jamaat-e-Islami’s support, noting that the organisation has clarified that in India, it does not pitch for a religion-based country. Reacting sharply to Satheesan’s remarks, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Congress and its allies have gone a step further in their “perpetual pursuit of a very dangerous appeasement policy”, with leaders asserting that the UDF is ready to accept the Jamaat-e-Islami’s support in the upcoming polls.

This “disruptive appeasement” poses a major challenge to Kerala, he said.

“The Congress already has an alliance with the Muslim League, which was founded by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The Muslim League, though, is a political outfit. But the Jamaat-e-Islami is a communal organisation that propagates an ideology that says India should be an Islamic state,” Trivedi told reporters at the BJP headquarters here.

“It is very clear and an alarming sign for the people of Kerala that the Congress is all set to sell all its stakes to such forces just for the sake of short-term political gains. The people of Kerala must unite to prevent the state from falling into a serious crisis,” he said.

The Kerala Assembly polls are due in a few months.