The arrest of controversial politician P.C. George by the Kerala Police has become a new issue for the BJP to target the Pinarayi Vijayan government in the state.
George was arrested on Sunday morning on charges of making provocative remarks about the Muslim community at a Hindu conclave recently. George was granted bail by a duty magistrate around noon on Sunday.
After he was granted bail, George told reporters outside the court that he was asked by the magistrate not to interfere with the investigation, not to influence witnesses or make any hate speeches or get involved in any controversies.
He also said that he had said in his speech that he does not want the support or vote of radical groups of any religion who do not love the country. How does that make me someone against any religion, he asked.
He also alleged that his arrest was a Ramzan present by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to the radical Muslim groups.
BJP offers support
George, who has a history of making provocative remarks on a range of issues, had tied up with the NDA in Kerala in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
By midday on Sunday, the police moved George to a camp of the Armed Reserve (AR) unit in Thiruvananthapuram. The car taking him to Thiruvananthapuram was pelted with eggs by activists of the DYFI, an affiliate of the CPI(M). Interestingly, BJP supporters stopped the convoy to felicitate George and drape him with a shawl.
BJP leaders in Kerala offered support to George. State BJP unit chief K. Surendran told mediapersons, “If Popular Front [Popular Front of India] or DYFI try to attack P.C. George, we will take an approach to protect him. So government organisations or terrorist organisations should not try to get into unnecessary problems. The arrest of P.C. George is a totally discriminatory move. He was shown complete double justice. No one has been arrested for making more provocative statements than this. This is a government move to appease religious terrorist organisations.”
Surendran argued “If Christians or Hindus say anything, they will be immediately arrested. No matter what Muslims say, Kerala is in a state of disarray. Especially when it comes to some communal organizations.”
Surendran had tweeted "The arrest of Shri. P.C. George is nothing but a gross violation of freedom of speech. The @vijayanpinarayi govt is trying to silence those who speak against Islamic terror. The left in Kerala has wholly surrendered before terrorism.”
Union Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan said he was denied permission to meet P.C. George at the A.R. camp. “Police denied permission to a Union minister to go inside AR Camp, and the CPI(M) govt speaks about the right to freedom of speech. This is double-speak, hypocrisy, I condemn it,” Muraleedharan said.
He tweeted “VijayanPinarayi has once again proved himself as a hypocrite @CPIMKerala Govt sits idle for days to arrest the killers of Sreenivasan It won't act on Islamic fundamentalists who create havoc in the state —but moves quickly to arrest who express their opinion.” A. Sreenivasan was an RSS activist who was murdered by suspected activists of an Islamic group in Palakkad in April.
