A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader has set a bounty of Rs 1 crore on the head of Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan (pictured). At an RSS protest in Ujjain on Wednesday, Kundan Chandrawat boasted how “2,000 Muslims” were killed in 2002 Gujarat riots. After the video clip of the speech circulated on social media on Thursday, the RSS distanced itself from Chandrawat’s statement.
The episode comes in the middle of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, where the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have made several communally sensitive remarks. With polling to 90 of 403 seats remaining, the incident is seen as another attempt at communal polarisation in the wake of the Ramjas College incident in Delhi.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) general-secretary Sitaram Yechury said a chief minister being threatened by RSS was proof that “they enjoy protection and patronage of government”. “RSS reveals its true colours as a terrorist outfit. Will the prime minister and his government stop remaining silent?” Yechury asked. Kerala has a CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front government. On Wednesday, the RSS organised meetings in several cities across India to protest alleged atrocities by CPI(M) on RSS workers in Kerala.
At the meeting at Shahid Park in Ujjain, Chandrawat said: “Three hundred pracharaks (RSS propagandists) have been killed. Communists be warned, we will offer a garland of three lakh heads to Bharat Mata.” Chandrawat is Sah Prachar Pramukh, or joint propaganda/publicity chief, of the RSS’s Ujjain unit.
Chandrawat reminded the gathering of the death of karsevaks at the Godhra railway station in February 2002 and the subsequent communal riots in Gujarat. “They killed 56, we sent 2,000 to the graveyard,” he said. Chandrawat said if anyone beheads the Kerala CM, who is the murderer of RSS activists, and brings his head, he will bequeath his property worth more than Rs 1 crore to him. On Thursday, Chandrawat told reporters that he stood by his comments. The protest was attended by the local BJP MP and RSS leaders.
When asked by reporters, Vijayan was quoted by news agency ANI to have said that “Sangh Parivar has taken heads of several people.”