Unleashing a scathing attack against Kerala’s ruling CPI(M) over the recent hacking of a BJP-RSS worker by alleged left activists in Thiruvananthapuram, senior BJP leader and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the brutality with which the Marxist were indulging in such political violence would embarrass even terrorists.
Participating in a programme organised to pay homage to RSS Karyavahak Rajesh (34), who was hacked to death by alleged Marxist killers on July 29, at his village Kallampilly near Sreekaryam in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, Jaitley assured the State’s BJP-RSS workers that the party’s entire machinery was solidly behind them.
Pointing out that the brutal manner in which Rajesh was murdered would not be conceptualised and shown even in movies, the Minister said, “Some 70-80 wounds were inflicted on his body. Even the enemies of the nation wouldn’t do this. Workers of the rival party — the CPI(M) — were involved in this brutal exercise.”
Describing Kerala as one of the most beautiful States in India and praising Keralites for their hard-working nature, the Minister said that the challenge of the Government in any such State should be to see how it could ensure development, but the prime policy of the party heading the Government in Kerala seemed to be using its cadre to annihilate rivals.
“Governments are elected to serve the people. Governments are elected to improve the quality of the lives of those people. Any Government has the responsibility to make sure that an environment of violence is not perpetrated. What has happened here in that matter is an ongoing saga of violence,” Jaitley pointed out.
The Union Minister was in the Kerala capital to meet the families and relatives of the BJP-RSS workers allegedly murdered by CPI(M) activists and other victims of Marxist violence and to express solidarity with them. He also interacted with the relatives of victims and families of BJP-RSS workers whose houses had come under attack from the Marxists in the recent months.
“Every time the lDF is in power, incidents of violence increase. Opponents are killed in the most brutal manner. You (Marxists) corner an innocent victim, you catch him on the road, you inflict multiple wounds on his body. The kind of wounds found on Rajesh’s body would embarrass even the terrorists,” he told newsmen later.
“What would have happened if the kind of political violence in Kerala had taken place in a BJP or NDA-ruled StateIJ Awards would have been returned, Parliament would not have been allowed to function and campaigns would have been carried out within and outside the country,” he claimed.
“Offices of the party (BJP) are attacked, houses of karyakartas are attacked and many of the karyakartas are either killed or seriously injured in attacks,” Jaitley said, accusing the State police of not only being mute witnesses to such incidents but also of effectively encouraging the perpetrators.
Stating that Rajesh was killed just because he was a RSS man who held fast to his ideology, Jaitley said, “His widow told me that he believed that the Sangh was part of his life… I want to say that this kind of violence cannot suppress our ideology or scare our workers. It will only increase their determination to work harder against those who were perpetrating this operation.”
On his Kerala visit, described as part of the BJP’s efforts to bring the incidents in Kerala to national focus, he told newsmen, “What is needed now is fairness, neutrality and efficiency (on the part) of the police… s political will and determination by the ruling party to control their cadre rather than letting them loose on political opponents.”
Responding to CPI(M)’s claim on the number of their cadre killed by RSS-BJP men, he said such kind of talks on “fake and immoral equilibrium” between perpetrators and victims was not going to solve the problem. “Kerala deserves peace, development. I do hope that the State Government takes effective steps to ensure that by putting an end to violence,” he said.
Ahead of Jaitley’s visit, the CPI(M) had organised a sit-in near the Raj Bhavan by the relatives of the 21 party workers allegedly killed by BJP-RSS workers in the capital district and demanded that the Minister should visit them. His visit coincided with an all-party meet convened by the Government to search for ways for maintaining peace in the State.