New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 23 Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly V.D. Satheesan on Friday launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Thiruvananthapuram, alleging that it exposed the BJP’s election agenda in Kerala as being “purely communal” and rooted in divisive politics that would find no acceptance in the state.
In a statement, soon after the Prime Minister’s speech in the state capital city, while addressing party workers, Satheesan, currently in New Delhi, said PM Modi has every right to visit Kerala and participate in official as well as party programmes.
However, he said it was “dangerous” for someone occupying the Prime Minister’s chair -- once held by towering national leaders -- to openly promote communal rhetoric.
Such statements, he said, amounted to distorting the very idea of India and undermining the country’s core constitutional values.
The opposition leader said the Prime Minister’s speech was striking for what it lacked. “There was nothing about development achievements, nothing about the future of the country or Kerala’s priority needs,” Satheesan said, adding that communalism was the only recurring theme.
The speech, he argued, made it clear that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have no other political agenda in Kerala apart from polarisation.
Satheesan asserted that Kerala’s social fabric would act as a bulwark against such politics.
“This is secular Kerala,” he said, adding that the divisive politics and “poisonous communal propaganda” practised in several other states would not gain ground in Kerala.
Reiterating the ideological position of the opposition, Satheesan said the Congress, the Muslim League and the UDF placed the protection of secularism at the very top of their political priorities.
“We will go to any extent to bury communal forces in this land and to safeguard secularism,” he said.
He also rejected allegations that the UDF indulged in appeasement politics, stating that neither the Congress nor the UDF followed the unethical practice of nurturing communalism for electoral gains.
“We do not pamper communal forces for four votes or for winning elections,” he said.
Satheesan concluded by asserting that the secular credentials of the Congress and the UDF did not require certification from the Prime Minister.
“Our commitment to secularism does not need Narendra Modi’s approval,” he said, underlining that Kerala would resist any attempt to polarise its electorate.
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