Kozhikode Mayor Beena Philip's participation in an event organised by the RSS as part of the upcoming Sree Krishna Jayanti celebrations has kicked up a row in Kerala as the Congress party alleged that it shows the nexus between the ruling CPI(M) and the BJP.
Mayor Philip had, on Sunday, attended an event of Balagokulam, an organisation under the RSS and allegedly made a speech in which she said North Indians take better care of children than in Kerala.
As her participation in the event sparked a controversy, the ruling CPI(M) issued a statement denouncing the mayor and said her statement was completely unacceptable.
"The speech made by Kozhikode Corporation Mayor, Dr Beena Philip, while participating in an event by an organisation under the RSS, was not right. The mayor's stand towards that particular issue is exactly opposite to that of the party. CPI(M) cannot accept this at all. The party has decided to publicly denounce the mayor's stand," the party statement read.
Meanwhile, the mayor who met the media said her statements were tweaked with malicious intent.
Leader of opposition V.D. Satheesan said the left front government lost its left identity and even the allies in that front are unhappy with such developments.
"Why is the CPI(M) silent right now? They recently made a huge issue after pulling up an old photo of mine when I released a book on Swami Vivekananda. The mayor said that her party has not banned anyone from attending any such event. This means she attended the event with the party's knowledge," Satheesan said.
In her speech, Philip said child care in Kerala was not as good as that in north India.
"The low child mortality rate does not mean that child care is good. For that we need to learn to love our children like the north Indians," she had said in her speech.
She had said that Keralites are selfish over their own children and treat other children differently but in North India, every child is looked after equally.
Meanwhile, a BJP district leader said the controversy was made by people with narrow minds.
