BJP State president K. Surendran on Monday interpreted Excise Minister M.V. Govindan's statement that majoritarian zealotry was more dangerous than minority extremism as the LDF government's tacit signal of protection to "anti-national" outfits.
Mr. Surendran said Mr. Govindan had green-lighted the Popular Front of India (PFI) move to reshape Kerala into another Kashmir. The Minister's words reflected the LDF's willingness to sacrifice public peace and secularism at the altar of political expediency, he said.
The war of words between the CPI(M) and the BJP had erupted in the wake of the tit-for-tat killings of a PFI activist and a RSS worker in Palakkad within 24 hours.
Mr. Govindan had said that civil society should not weigh majoritarian extremism and minority extremism on the same scale.
The former aspired to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra by disenfranchising minorities. Hence, it was more dangerous. Nevertheless, minority extremism catalysed majority radicalism, he said.
Both groups have a planned agenda to exterminate each other. “Neither the government nor the police could predict or stop pre-meditated killings as seen in Palakkad,” Mr. Govindan said.
Surendran’s charge
Mr. Surendran said the CPI(M) had turned an apologist for the PFI. He said PFI activists were responsible for the violence against devotees on Hanuman Jayanthi and Ram Navami in New Delhi. It pursued the same hardline in Kerala by targetting activists of nationalist outfits.
The CPI(M) was trying to whitewash the PFI's grim record. The party should reveal whether Kerala's political and demographic changes had prompted it to give political cover to the PFI for electoral gain, he said.
Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala also weighed in with criticism of the government. He said the disturbing murders in Palakkad mirrored the killings in Alappuzha in December last.
The Kerala Police appeared helpless to prevent the massacre. The CPI(M) promoted majority and minority communalism for electoral gain. It tacitly encouraged both elements to eliminate each other, he said.
