Senior Congress leader and leader of the Opposition in the Kerala assembly VD Satheesan on Wednesday said that CPM leader AK Balan’s statement that Jamaat-e-Islami will handle the home affairs if the UDF comes to power is similar to the extremist line being taken by the Sangh Parivar. He compared the statement with the BJP’s poll campaign in Gujarat in the 1990s.
Speaking to media persons in Kochi on Wednesday, Satheesan said the BJP had earlier unleashed such a propaganda in Gujarat, stating that if the Congress wins the assembly election in the state, Ahmed Patel would become the chief minister. He said AK Balan articulated the same Sangh Parivar strategy through such a statement. “Such propaganda was to create anti-Muslim sentiments in the majority community and divide the two communities,” he said.
Stating that Balan has made the statement with the knowledge of the CPM leadership, he asked, “Didn’t the CPM rule Kerala many times with the support of Jamaat-e-Islami? Was it Jamaat-e-Islami that handled the home affairs all those times? ”
He said the statements of Vellappally Natesan and AK Balan should be read together.
“The Congress wants to know whether CPI state secretary Binoy Viswam, who opposed Vellappally’s communal statement, supports the communal remarks made by AK Balan,” Satheesan said.
He further said that secular Kerala would resist and defeat such campaigns by the CPM leaders.