The row over Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy being left out of a function to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi escalated today with Rahul Gandhi accusing him of "insulting" people of the state while it triggered protests in Parliament.
Modi, who will undertake his first visit to Kerala, is scheduled to unveil the statue of former Chief Minister R Sankar in Kollam tomorrow at the event organised by Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), a social outfit of the backward Hindu Ezhava community.
Rahul, who led a dharna of Congress MPs on various issues outside Parliament, targeted Modi over the exclusion of Chandy while the chief minister in a Facebook post said the decision to keep him out was a "painful experience" and an "insult" to people of the state.
Congress and BJP members clashed in the Lok Sabha over the issue with the former alleging that the prime minister's constitutional position was being used for "political vendetta", a charge rejected as "baseless" by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who said the Centre had nothing to do with it.
Seeking to douse the controversy, Vellapally Natesan, who is heading the SNDP, said it was he who was responsible for deletion of Chandy's name from the function and not the BJP leadership, as was being alleged. The BJP and the SNDP recently forged an alliance in Kerala where Assembly polls are due next year.
Rahul alleged that the prime minister has "stopped our chief minister" from going to a function.
"Chief Minister of Kerala represents the people of Kerala. Chief Minister of Kerala is the voice of the people of Kerala and the Prime Minister had insulted that voice. This is simply not acceptable to us," he told reporters in Delhi.
Rejecting as "unfounded and baseless" the charge levelled by Congress against the prime minister, Rajnath told the Lok Sabha that the decision to withdraw the invite to Chandy was taken by SNDP due to its "internal row" and the government had nothing to do with it.
Rajnath said it was true that SNDP had first invited Chandy which led to some "internal row" within it and the organisation then adopted a "unanimous resolution" saying the Chief Minister should not come.
"Who is invited and who is not is a decision for the SNDP to take and the government has nothing to do with it."
Outside Parliament, Singh termed the controversy as needless and based on presumptions, saying it does not believe in confrontation with any state government.
"SNDP is a social organisation and extending invitations to individuals or dignitaries is its own decision and discretion...The SNDP must have invited the Kerala CM also for the function but later changed its mind and decided against it. Govt had no role in this," Singh said in a statement.
In the Lok Sabha, the Speaker was forced to adjourn the House due to the uproar over the issue and on other matters.
"It is an agonising issue which has seriously affected emotions of people of Kerala and the country. It is a serious breach of political morality... Due to the unfair political move by the ruling party at the Centre (BJP), he (Chandy) was dropped. The entire state is shocked and agitating.
"The PMO or the Prime Minister has a hand in this. Humiliating the Chief Minister is humiliation of Kerala. The constitutional position is being used for political vendetta. This is against cooperative federalism," Congress member K C Venugopal (Cong) said raising the matter during the Zero Hour.
