Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Friday said the Centre’s compilation of “a broad set of so-called unparliamentary words forbidden in the Lok Sabha” indicated the authoritarian drift of the Modi government.
Speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting of the CPI(M) State Secretariat here, Mr. Balakrishnan said the Centre had attempted to gag MPs and strangle dissent. The BJP was killing India's secular democracy by a thousand cuts.
Fundamentalist elements on either side of the religious spectrum were leading Kerala down the perilous path to visceral communal polarisation. They sought to reap political dividends by exacerbating religious fervour and hatred for the other.
The Congress had gone slack on criticising the Sangh Parivar and Islamist forces. It wanted to bring both powers under the UDF umbrella to retain a few seats in the next Lok Sabha elections. The CPI(M) was the only bulwark against their attempts to tear Kerala’s secular fabric.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan had attended an event hosted by the pro-Sangh Parivar Vivekananda Centre in Thrissur to woo Hindu fundamentalist votes. In contrast, former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had used a similar Sangh Parivar venue to slam the RSS. “Mr. Satheesan is hiding his real motive for being at the RSS stage,” he said.
“Mr. Satheesan seemed ignorant that the Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the BJP, was non-existent when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan contested the Assembly election from the Thalassery constituency in 1977,” he said. (Mr. Satheesan had earlier alleged that Mr. Vijayan had sought RSS votes to win at the hustings.)
Anti-Emergency movement
Socialist Jayaprakash Narayan headed the anti-Emergency movement. The CPI(M) had also opposed the Emergency. In the post-Emergency period, the CPI(M) had struck a tactical understanding with the then Janata Party (JP). Post-1977, the Janata Party fell prey to RSS infiltration, leading to a split and the creation of the Jana Sangh in 1980. “Mr. Satheesan is attempting to distort political history,” he said.
Mr. Balakrishnan said Union Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar had made a pretence of inspecting NH development in Thiruvananthapuram with an eye on the next Lok Sabha elections. The BJP-led Centre had used every trick in its playbook to thwart Kerala's development, including rail projects.
