FM Jaitley to visit Kerala on Sunday

Union Minister for Finance and Defence Arun Jaitley will visit Kerala on Sunday against the backdrop of growing incidents of violence against BJP and RSS workers in the State.

He will visit the home of Rajesh, a RSS worker who was hacked to death last Saturday, and BJP councillors in Thiruvananthpuram whose homes have been attacked.

The BJP has been raising the killings of RSS and BJP workers in Kerala, allegedly by CPI(M) members, in Parliament too, and Mr. Jaitley’s visit is being seen as upping the ante.

It is not yet known whether he will meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was asked earlier by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to put an end to such incidents. Mr. Vijayan had called a “peace meeting” of RSS and CPI(M) leaders, but it has not satisfied the BJP. Union Minister for Information Smriti Irani told The Hindu that the BJP “is not satisfied with the peace talks initiated by Mr. Vijayan... He has feigned a constructed innocence, we do not trust that his intention to stop the murders which are of political benefit to him.”

BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav said the State government should be questioned more closely



on its handling of law and order. “There have been 17 murders of RSS men in 17 months. Five of these murders have taken place in Mr. Vijayan’s village itself. Rajesh was hacked in 84 places, just 15 minutes away from Raj Bhawan and when Section 144 was in force,” he said. “It seems that if you are from the RSS, you can be killed and no one will be outraged by it,” he said. “If this happened in any other State, imagine the clamour; but here no leader of any other party wants to protest,” he said.

Boosting morale

Mr. Yadav said that besides fighting the matter politically, the party was helping to rehabilitate the victims of the violence and undertaking an exercise to boost the morale of the cadre.

“These murders have been taking place for the past 40 years, and the BJP got its first MLA in Kerala in the elections last year. This reflects the kind of domination that the Left wants to establish.”

Senior RSS office-bearers Suresh ‘bhaiyyaji’ Joshi, Dattatreya Hosabele and Krishna Gopal met BJP president Amit Shah recently to voice concern over the murders and to urge that the BJP raise the issue more forcefully.