Saturday 16 / November / 2024
New Delhi: Amping up its offensive against the Left Front in Kerala, a BJP delegation on Sunday met President Pranab Mukherjee over attacks on party workers allegedly by CPI(M) supporters and also questioned the silence of Congress, saying it is not good for democracy.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari told reporters after meeting the president that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers were facing "atrocities" from CPI(M), which led the alliance that won the Assembly polls in the state. He alleged that police was not taking appropriate action.
"We have given the president details of these cases, including photographs. Our worker Pramod was killed. Houses of more than 100 workers have been vandalised.
Situation is not good. He has assured us that he will take appropriate action.
"Unfortunately, UPA, Congress are keeping quiet. This is not good for democracy. Democracy is a battle of ideas and parties cannot grow by taking law into their hands. We hope that those having faith in democracy will condemn this violence," he said.
Asked about Communist Party of India(Marxist)'s charge that BJP was misleading, he said details of the incidents have been submitted to Mukherjee.
Besides Gadkari, the delegation included Union ministers J. P.Nadda, Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MPs Meenakshi Lekhi and M. J.Akbar and Kerala BJP President Kummanam Rajasekharan.
Attacking the Left Front, BJP chief Amit Shah had on Saturday accused it of "violating" the people's mandate as his party said it will not sit quiet and fight on the streets if violence continues.
The delegation claimed that "enhanced presence" of the BJP in the state, converting bipolar election to a visible tripolar, has given the Left parties a reason to scale the level of violence.
"There is the general apprehension that the state may witness a large scale organised crusade by the Left front government to decimate the growing strength of BJP through violent means," the memorandum submitted by the delegation said.
The delegation said this incident in particular is one of the few cases of post election violence "unleashed by the incumbent LDF government".
"There has been a history of over 100 activists, 'karyakartas' of the BJP and the RSS, who have been brutally killed and many more injured and maimed for pursuing their nationalist ideological commitment where majority of such cases of attack and killing have proven to have been unleashed by the Left front workers," it alleged.
"Just prior to the election a BJP worker E. K.Biju, who was in an auto rickshaw carrying school children (all below the age of 10 years), was waylaid and attacked by CPM workers in Kannur district," the memorandum said. It claimed that several such cases in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kottayam and Chalakudy remain uninvestigated.
Hitting back, CPI(M) on Sunday blamed BJP and RSS for the violence in Kerala, alleging that their workers had attacked the victory processions of Left leaders as the saffron outfits were not willing to accept the people's verdict.
"The CPI(M) very strongly condemns the attacks and vandalism the BJP has organised. It is the BJP and RSS workers who started this bout of violence by attacking a victory procession," party leader Sitaram Yechury alleged.
"This has happened across the state. The BJP is simply not willing to accept the democratic verdict of the people of Kerala," he told reporters.
The Left party claimed that allegations against its workers were "false" and BJP leadership was adopting a "hypocritical and dishonest position" about what has happened in Kerala.
