Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has accused Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of being "insensitive and too casual”, and of not doing anything to avert violence in the politically volatile parts of Kannur district.
Naqvi told THE WEEK that the recent murder of BJP worker K.V. Ramith by the CPI(M) activists in the chief minister's native village was really unfortunate.
Said Naqvi, “The Kerala government works with a prejudiced mindset. So many of our party workers have been killed. Yet the state government does nothing to protect or safeguard them. We will give suitable advisory to the state government to control violence and demand strict action against the culprits."
The Kerala BJP has accused Vijayan of sheltering those involved in political killings. The party wants paramilitary forces to be deployed in Kannur and adjoining areas.
BJP legislator O. Rajagopal blamed Vijayan for not preventing the increase in violence. BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan said, “Kerala’s consciousness should rise against the brutalities of the CPI(M).”
Vijayan, however, has maintained that it is “the RSS and the BJP who are unleashing violence in the state with the support of the Central government. Their thirst for blood will never end.”
Said the former Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain of the BJP to THE WEEK, “There is no law and order in Kerala. The LDF government is scared of the BJP and sees its rise in the state as a huge threat. The government in Kerala is unpopular. Its honeymoon period is over and it has failed to show any result.” Hussain wanted the CBI to investigate Ramith’s murder.
Kannur district, considered the seedbed of political violence in the state, has seen six murders of CPI(M) and BJP workers after the Left Democratic Front came to power in May this year. Ramith’s murder is being seen as retaliation to the murder of a CPI(M) worker, K. Mohanan, a day earlier.
The Congress president in Kerala, V.M. Sudheeran, said it was bizarre that political killings should take place in a democratic setup. "The CM is incompetent to run the home department. He should give it up," said Sudheeran.
The BJP national president Amit Shah said that the success of the Kozhikode national council meet of the party had unnerved the CPI(M) cadre in the state.
Said Sakshi Maharaj, BJP MP, to THE WEEK, "The killing of our party workers cannot be tolerated. At the Kozhikode meet, the prime minister discussed this issue with us. All party workers in the country are now aware of the brutality meted out to our brothers in Kerala by the communists.”
