Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday lashed out at the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) for targetting his family during a recent rally to protest his government's Waqf Board policy, asking its leadership to learn to respect one's mother and sister.
Hitting out at the Muslim League for the alleged "uncivilised" slogans and remarks raised in its rally, the Chief Minister said inculcating culture should begin in the family. Sharply reacting to the slogans raised in the Muslim League rally saying that Vijayan's late father Mundayail Koran was a toddy tapper and Kerala was not gifted as a dowry to him, the CM sought to know why they dragged his late father's name in connection with the Waqf issue.
"I don't understand why you drag the name of my poor father who died when I was a high school student in connection with the Waqf Board issue? What wrong did he commit against you? Is it wrong for him to be a toddy tapper? I have often said I am proud that I am the son of a toddy tapper. Is it wrong that he was a toddy tapper," Vijayan said. He was addressing a CPI(M) meeting organised as part of the party's Kannur district conference near here.
The senior CPI(M) leader also criticised a Muslim League leader who made distasteful remarks about the marriage between PWD Minister P A Muhammed Riyas and his daughter Veena, asking the Muslim League leadership to ascertain if that person was displaying the culture he had acquired from his family.
"You should know how to respect your mother and your sister. Inculcating culture should begin in the family", Vijayan said and asked the League leadership to find out if the person who made such remarks against his daughter and son-in-law had acquired that culture from his family.
Addressing the massive rally organised by the Muslim League in Kozhikode on Thursday, Muslim League leader Abdurahman Kallayi party state secretary Abdurahman Kallayi had urged the League workers to have the audacity to say loudly that Riyas's marriage with Veena last year was "illegitimate."
He later tendered an unconditional apology for the remarks. The Muslim League had organised the rally on Thursday in Kozhikode in protest against the LDF government's move to authorise state Public Service Commission to make appointments to the Waqf Board.
-With PTI Inputs
