Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] general secretary Sitaram Yechury called on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Popular Front of India (PFI) to stop “sharpening communal polarisation.”
At a press conference at the AKG Centre here, Mr. Yechury urged BJP national president J.P. Nadda to rein in the RSS instead of seeking to lecture the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government on political violence. The PFI should also stop vitiating public peace, he said. He noted that minority and majority communalism shared a symbiotic relationship, and one catalysed the other.
Mr. Yechury said the PFI and the RSS were primarily responsible for the political violence in Kerala. Retaliatory attacks and ambushes had claimed the lives of RSS and PFI cadres in Alappuzha and Palakkad. The government had successfully prosecuted the cases. It has repeatedly foiled the bid of both organisations to transform Kerala into a hotspot for communal violence.
Mr. Yechurry said banning the PFI was of no help. They will resurface in some other form. Successive Central governments had banned the RSS thrice, to no avail. Maoists still battle it out with security forces despite a decade-old ban. He said democratic parties should strive relentlessly to preserve the secular fabric of India from being torn asunder by extremist elements on either side of the political spectrum. The RSS has to stop spreading hate and terror and demonising minorities. He said the CPI(M) is against all forms of extremism.
