A day ahead of the BJP's 15-day janaraksha yatra to be launched by its chief Amit Shah in Kannur district, a war of words erupted between leaders of the party and the ruling CPI(M) over threat to each other's workers.
The BJP is taking out the state-wide foot march, to be led by state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, to expose the alleged 'red terrorism' unleashed by the Marxist party against its workers.
A day after slamming RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for accusing the Kerala government of supporting jihadi and anti-national forces, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today picked out union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar for comparing Marxist leaders in Kerala with Maoists.
The 'M' in CPI(M) now stands for "Maoists" and not "Marxists", Javadekar had claimed, accusing the party of using violence as a tool to suppress the saffron party.
"Through our yatra, we will seek answers (to the political killings by CPI-M)...and we will put them (CPI-M) in the dock and we will fight them out through democratic means," he said in New Delhi.
Vijayan told reporters in New Delhi that union ministers should follow federal principles.
"Union ministers coming out with such statements defying federal principles is inappropriate," he said.
While making statements about states, union ministers should follow federal principles, he said, adding that such remarks were being made as the 'RSS agenda' was not getting implemented in the southern state.
Vijayan later said in a Facebook post that BJP ministers and RSS leaders should stop 'maligning' Kerala.
"The statement of the union minister that CPI(M) workers in Kerala were launching attacks like Maoists is only a feeble ploy to keep under wraps the violence being unleashed by their workers," he said.
He pointed out that the BJP yatra starts from Payyannur, were a worker of DYFI (youth wing of CPI-M) was killed in July 11 last year.
"Shah and other BJP leaders should ask their followers why the DYFI worker was killed," he said.
CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also lashed out at Javadekar, saying he should first study what Marxism is.
He also said the Left Democratic Front in Kerala is a progressive movement which had always fought against all types of terror.
Reacting to Vijayan's outburst yesterday against Bhagwat, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan said that the Chief Minister's reaction had come out of his "guilty consciousness."
"We can cite several examples of right and left fronts in Kerala supporting anti-nationals for political gains," he said in a statement.
Joining issue, senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said RSS's description of Kerala as the centre of jihadi forces came out of 'desperation' as they failed to implement their agenda in the state.
He also criticised the LDF government, saying it was only making statements and taking no action to deal with the RSS.
"Vijayan could not even initiate any action against Bhagwat for unfurling the national flag at a government aided school in Palakkad on August 15," he said.
Meanwhile, preparations are in full swing at Payyannur for the smooth conduct of the BJP rally tomorrow.
About 3,000 police personnel have been deployed, especially in sensitive areas.
Shah will garland a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Payyannur and walk at least four kilometres along with his fellow party men, BJP sources in Kannur said.
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