The twin Janajagratha Yatras of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), from the northern and southern ends of the State, began on Saturday with ruling alliance leaders launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).
Inaugurating the southern yatra, led by CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran in the State capital, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the BJP’s accusations against the State and its government would boomerang on the BJP leadership.
The RSS bid was to turn India into a country of communal hostilities. Although BJP president Amit Shah had led his party’s Janaraksha Yatra along with several Central leaders, Ministers, MPs and MLAs, the people of Kerala had not responded to it because they had seen through the BJP’s bid to convert Kerala into a communally polarised State.
Inaugurating the northern yatra, led by CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, at Uppala in Kasaragod, CPI national secretariat member D. Raja said the BJP leaders would do well to conduct their Janaraksha Yatra in Gujarat where a Dalit got beaten up for growing a moustache or in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajastan where both the Dalits and minorities were under attack.
“The RSS and the BJP, which had little role in the freedom struggle, are bent on polarising the people on communal and caste lines,” Mr. Raja said.
The CPI leader attributed what he termed the BJP bid to orchestrate a communal frenzy across the country to its frantic bid to cover up the Modi government’s many failures on the administrative front, including demonetisation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had said that demonetisation would help unearth black money was now taking cover under lame excuses, he said.