Kerala CM counters PM Modi’s attack on CPI(M)
Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism of the CPI(M) and the LDF Government during his visit to Kerala on Friday, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan cited an alleged brutal assault on a pastor in BJP-ruled Odisha.
Soon after Modi launched a scathing attack on the LDF Government, Vijayan, in a post on ‘X’, highlighted a recent alleged assault on a pastor over accusations of religious conversion in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district.
“The brutal assault on a pastor in Odisha is not an isolated crime; it reflects the atmosphere of violence and hatred being systematically fostered by the Sangh Parivar. Forcing a human being to eat cow dung is a deeply inhuman act, emboldened by the silence and complicity of BJP-led Governments,” the CM said.
Although Vijayan did not directly refer to the PM’s speech, the post was made shortly after Modi’s event and referred to an incident that had occurred in Odisha a few days earlier.
Vijayan said that as the country marks 27 years since the gruesome killing of missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons, it was evident that the same forces of intolerance continued to operate with impunity.
“Not just in Odisha, but across India, the secular fabric of our nation is under sustained attack. This coordinated attempt to undermine constitutional democracy and impose the Sangh Parivar’s communal politics must be firmly resisted,” he said.
Earlier in the day, addressing an NDA event in Thiruvananthapuram, Modi alleged that the LDF Government “was corrupt and was hindering Kerala’s development by opposing Central initiatives and looting people’s hard-earned money through cooperative bank scams.”
Targeting the CPI(M)-led ruling alliance, the prime minister also accused the LDF of leaving “no stone unturned to tarnish the traditions of the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala.”
