Javadekar Sees Red Over Pinarayi Vijayan’s Statement Flaying RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat

Union minister Prakash Javedekar has taken up the cudgels on behalf of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in attacking Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Vijayan had earlier lashed out at RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, saying that Keralites did not need any advice on nationalism from those who had turned their back towards the freedom struggle and served the colonial rulers.

He also said that the RSS chief's allegation that the state government was supporting anti-national elements was a challenge to each Keralite and to Kerala society as a whole.

Bhagwat, at a Vijayadashmi celebration in Nagpur in Maharashtra on Saturday, had said that in the Left-ruled Kerala and the Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal, "jihadi and anti- national" forces were at work and the governments there were not only indifferent but at times lending a helping hand to them to "appease" a section of the voters for "petty political interests".

Rejecting the RSS chief's remarks, the Kerala chief minister said, "It is a known fact that communal forces play a major role in disturbing the political atmosphere of Kerala. But certain media houses hide this fact and blame the progressive movements and organisations of the state."

"The RSS chief has said that the state government was supporting anti-national elements that are perpetrating the violence. But we treat communal forces as communal forces, terrorists as terrorists and criminal acts as criminal acts.

"The gentleman and his organisation consider religious minorities as an internal threat to the country. This is the code of principle of RSS," the chief minister said, adding that his government and the Kerala society were in favour of protecting the minorities.

Vijayan, who was in Delhi to attend the CPI(M) Politburo meeting, also took a dig at certain media houses.

With Agency Inputs