Without any declaration about its long-pending demands, Prime Minister Narendra Modi disappointed Thrissur, T.N. Prathapan, MP, has said.
Addressing mediapersons here on Friday he said the Prime Minister totally neglected the development dreams of Thrissur. He used the venue for his self-promotion.
“I myself had submitted a project worth ₹50 crore for the development of Thekkinkadu Maidan.”
Trimming of branches of the old Banyan tree at Naikanal hurt the sentiments of devotees as well as environmentalists. Youth Congress organised the ‘Ma Nishada’ agitation to protest against that, he said.
Coming heavily on the statement of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran that the activists of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) are now the aides of T.N. Prathapan, Mr. Prathapan challenged the BJP chief to prove his links with the PFI activists. “I am against both majority and minority communalism. I don’t want any certificate from Mr. Surendran to prove my secular values.”
Responding to the Kerala Students Union (KSU) activists’ attempt to sprinkle cow dung water at the venue where the PM addressed the women’s meet, Mr. Prathapan said that was not the protest method of the Congress.
“That protest was not conducted with the permission of the Congress. The Congress will not agree with any protest method which is against the policies of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
He told the BJP/Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) not to try to threaten him. “I will not surrender to the threat of any communal forces. Showing a scar on his face, he said it was the mark of an attack by RSS people while he was an 8th standard student. I have raised my protest and questions at the Prime Minister at the Parliament itself, he said.