There’s no scope for political violence in democracy: Yogi Adityanath

KOCHI: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath seems to be singing from the same song sheet as his party president Amit Shah by alleging that the CPM government in Kerala is pursuing a policy of political killings against its rivals.

Shah had made similar remarks at the launch of the Janaraksha Yatra on Tuesday. While maintaining that there is no scope for political violence in a democracy, he said on Wednesday that the CPM government is not providing safety and security to the life and property of people. The highest incidence of political violence is in the Kerala chief minister’s home town, he said at Kannur after joining the Janaraksha Yatra, led by state BJP president Kummanam Rajashekharan.

According to BJP, about 125 BJP/RSS workers have been killed in the state after 2001. About 14 killings have happened in the chief minister’s home town, according to the party. Adityanath said the state should act against ‘love jihad’, which is a serious development in Kerala and Karnataka. On Tuesday, Amit Shah had participated in the Yatra, which has adopted the theme –– “Against Jihadi –– Red Terror”. At the inauguration of the Yatra, he had said that Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan is responsible for the political violence in the state.

Meanwhile, the Congress teamed up with the CPM to put up a joint front against the BJP campaign against the state. Former chief minister Oommen Chandy said Amit Shah and the RSS are attacking Kerala based on some isolated incidents.

Kerala is against all divisive forces. All parties will come to defend it if the state is insulted, he said. CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said BJP workers who were participating in the Yatra were viewing the state as an “enemy nation”. The party is instigating violence in the state, he added. He said that nobody in the state will attach any value to the words of a person who has engineered violence in Gujarat.

In New Delhi, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday rejected Shah's allegation that saffron workers were being targeted and instead accused the BJP and the RSS of spreading “well-planned violence” in the state. “It is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Why did they threw bombs at Pinarayi Vijayan's victory rally? They had been accumulating arms since the day poll results were declared,” he alleged One person had died when a bomb was hurled at Pinarayi in Dharmadam assembly segment soon after Vijayan won from there in state polls in May last year. The Left had accused BJP-RSS activists of carrying out the attack.

Yechury alleged that the “violence is being thoughtfully used by BJP to divert people's attention”. “People are discontent. Modi Government has failed at the national level. People of Kerala and Bengal have rejected them,” he told reporters. “Countdown has started for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That is why they are using violence and communal hatred as tools to di- vide people.

This had been their methodology for long,” Yechury alleged. He announced that the CPM will organise nation-wide protest on October 9, a counter-offensive by the Left party against the 15-day march launched by Shah on Tuesday to highlight the CPM’s alleged violence against BJP-RSS party workers in Kerala.“ CPM and the people of Kerala and Bengal will give a befitting reply to activities of BJP democratically,” Yechury said. Earlier, the CPM took a dig at the visit of Yogi Adityanath by stating that the UP CM can visit the hospitals in Kerala to learn how well they are run.