Day of political violence: Rahul Gandhi's car pelted with stones in Gujarat

RSS demands President rule in Kerala

Allegations related to “political violence” were the order of the day on Friday.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s car was pelted with stones during his visit to flood-hit Dhanera town of Gujarat’s Banaskantha district. 

The Congress alleged that the “Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) goons” were behind the attack. 

Gandhi, according to a PTI report, also had to cut short his speech and leave the venue of a public meeting in a huff when some raised slogans extolling Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said Gandhi’s visit to Gujarat was an example of his “photo-opportunity” politics. On protests, he said the Opposition should “respect” people’s emotions. 

In another development, at a press conference in New Delhi, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) demanded a judicial probe into the “political killings” of its workers by Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres in Kerala. 

RSS number two Dattatreya Hosabale also demanded that the Centre impose President’s Rule in Kerala as law and order had broken down in the state. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is slated to visit Kerala on Sunday. He will visit the homes of victims of CPI(M) violence, including that of 34-year-old Rajesh, who was hacked to death allegedly by CPI(M) cadres in Thiruvanan-thapuram last week.

CPI(M) chief Sitaram Yechury said the current spiral of violence in Kerala was started by RSS-BJP workers. He said the BJP-RSS had raked up the controversy to distract attention from recent corruption cases involving state BJP leaders. In a statement, the party’s polit bureau said RSS-BJP men had killed 13 CPI (M) and Congress workers since the Left Democratic Front came to power last year.

The CPI (M) said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had convened a meeting of CPI(M) and BJP-RSS state leaders on July 31 to discuss peace initiatives. Such meetings were also held in three other districts. 

It said a framework has been agreed upon to bring down the violence and both sides have agreed to see that conflicts are avoided.

Yechury said the BJP and Narendra Modi government were trying to create a situation to impose President’s Rule to throw out a democratically elected government, when the law and order has been much worse in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.

Hosabale, however, demanded a judicial inquiry into the political killings by either a judge of high court or the Supreme Court in the murders of RSS workers in the state. 

“Our workers are targeted as more common and poor people are joining the RSS which is not going well with the ruling CPI(M), that is why they are killing our workers,” he alleged. 

The RSS joint general secretary said political violence has increased since Vijayan took over as the chief minister. He said RSS has always agreed to a dialogue, but was backstabbed three times in the past when its workers were killed.