The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership of indulging in doublespeak regarding the recent clashes between the CPI(M) and BJP-RSS workers in Thiruvananthapuram.
In a statement issued in New Delhi and published on the party website, the CPI(M) Polit Bureau pointed out that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had convened a meeting of CPI(M) and BJP-RSS State leaders on July 31 to discuss ways and means to ensure peace and avoid such incidents in future in response to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s appeal that adequate measures be taken to stop the clashes.
As decided at this meeting, similar meetings were held in three districts as a follow-up. At these meetings both sides had committed to see that conflicts were avoided and action was taken by the police if anyone resorts to violence.
An all-party meeting was being held on Saturday as a further follow-up. It was at such a juncture that the central leadership of the BJP and a Union Minister had raised ‘baseless and partisan’ allegations against the CPI(M) in Kerala.
BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav and Union Minister Smriti Irani had even questioned the sincerity of the initiative by the Kerala Chief Minister which had yielded results. It was, thus, a case of the Home Minister adopting one position and another Union Minister and the BJP leadership taking a contrary stand. “This clearly shows that the BJP-RSS are not keen to see that peace is restored and there are no political clashes,” it said.
The CPI(M) Polit Bureau alleged that the BJP-RSS had begun their attacks on the CPI(M) the very day election results were announced in May 2016. A CPI(M) worker was killed in Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s constituency while participating in a victory procession. The RSS-BJP workers had killed 13 CPI(M) workers since the formation of the LDF government and more than 200 party members and sympathisers had been injured and hospitalised. Over 165 houses and 51 party offices and many mass organisation offices had also been attacked, set on fire or vandalised.
“The game plan is clear. Resort to provocative actions and uncalled for physical assaults on the CPI(M) workers and raise the cry that the CPI(M) is resorting to violence and blame the Kerala government for not stopping such attacks. The people of Kerala know very well who is responsible for the political violence at a time when the LDF government is seriously engaged in implementing the developmental programmes set out in the election manifesto of the Left Democratic Front. The people of Kerala who continue to maintain the highest level of communal amity and social harmony will surely rise to defeat such efforts at disrupting peace and normalcy in the State,” the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said.