BJP comes out against VS’ criticism of Venkaiah Naidu

The BJP came out heavily on Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan for blaming senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu, on the attack against the CPI(M) headquarters AKG Bhavan in New Delhi. The BJP national executive member and former State president of the party, PS Sreedharan Pillai while speaking to reporters here on Monday said that Venkaiah Naidu has not made any provocative statements as claimed by Achuthanandan.

Sreedharan Pillai said that Naidu had accused the CPI(M) of misusing the official machinery in the State for its ulterior ends and had also said that if the BJP had adopted similar strategy in the States it ruled then what would be the position of the CPI(M) in the country.

Pillai said that Naidu’s timely visit to the State was instrumental in raising the issue in Parliament effectively and said that it was quite unfortunate for a leader of the stature of the State Chief Minister Achuthanandan to have come out against Naidu in such a manner.

On Naidu’s reported statement in Kochi that the fate of Marxist workers would be pathetic if the BJP also reacted the same way in its strongholds, Achuthanandan had said the leadership of any party should try to dissuade the rank and file from indulging in such violence.

Criticising Achuthanandan, State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and CPI(M) State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan for “not reacting to the large-scale violence in Kannur immediately,” he said the BJP believed that the incidents were “State-sponsored”.

He also demanded that the LDF Government come out with a white paper on the political clashes in the State after it came to power.

The BJP leadership in the State is euphoric after the issue was effectively raised in Parliament and for the first time in the history of the ongoing political clashes in Kannur district in which several BJP, RSS workers and leaders have lost their lives, the party is able to bring the issue in national attention. The CPI(M) leadership which was shouting from rooftops on the damages it could do to the BJP and the RSS was dumbfound on the violence unleashed on its party national headquarters.

A former State leader of the BJP while speaking to The Pioneer said, “The CPI(M) has got a taste of its own medicine. A State leader of the CPI(M) had recently told a journalist that if the CPI(M) starts attacks against the RSS in every part of Kannur district then the RSS will be finished in the district. A similar situation has now arrived as the BJP, RSS leadership has effectively raised the issue in Parliament and there is a general feeling that the sophisticated faces of Prakash Karat and Yechury are not the actual CPI(M).”

The local level leaders of the CPI(M) are also not in a position to react following the incidents in the capital as there is a general feeling that the CPI(M) would have to be cautious in its attack against the Sangh Parivar in the country as there could be violent reactions.

With an attack on the residence of the State secretary of the CPI(M) in Bangalore the other night there is a general feeling that this was also the handiwork of the RSS-BJP combine. There is also the feeling in CPI(M) circles that the party leaders who are travelling out of the State may have to face the wrath of the other parties if it tries to subdue political parties and organisations with force.

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