BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday accused the Left of indulging in the “politics of violence” and said the “more muck you spread by killing, the more the lotus will bloom”. Shah was addressing party workers at Connaught Place in the heart of the national capital as part of the BJP’s Jan Raksha Yatra against alleged political killings of RSS and BJP workers in Kerala.
Pointing at the photographs of BJP and RSS workers killed in Kerala that were put up at the venue, Shah said, “A life can be taken by a bullet. Why do you cut them into pieces? What message do you want to send?”
He added: “They want to create fear, that those who join the BJP will be killed in such a cruel manner. As the party’s national president today, I want to tell all the laal bhai who are spread around — hatya ka kichad aap jitna phailaoge, Kamal utna hi acche se khil kar bahar aayega (the more muck you spread by killing, the lotus will bloom more). Our party, our ideology is not going to be scared of sacrifice.”
Attacking Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Shah alleged that the maximum number of such murders had taken place in the CM’s home district Kannur. “People told us that all these murders take place on the directions of the CM. Since the communist party has come to power, more than 120 workers of the Sangh and BJP have been murdered.”
“Their political character itself is based on violence. The trend of political killings takes place in three states of the country, Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. It is not a coincidence that in all three places, the Left has been in power for a long time. Wherever the Left has been in power, they have changed the political culture of the area and based it on violence. The BJP, be it Kerala or Tripura or Bengal, will strongly oppose this politics of violence,” he said.
As he elaborated on the expansion of the BJP, Shah had a message for both “the communist party and its supporter, the Congress party”. “Communism has vanished in the world and Congress has disappeared in the country. BJP, which had started with 10 members, has 11 crore members and it is the largest political organisation. In 80 per cent of the country’s land, BJP or its friends are in power and at the Centre, there is a full majority BJP government.”
Slamming “human rights champions who carry candles and go out on small things”, Shah said, “I want to ask them, 12 workers of my party were killed mercilessly, why didn’t your anger emerge against this violence? Why don’t we ever see you carrying candles against our laal bhai? Selective protest has exposed you. Your protest is not against violence. Had it been against violence, you would have protested against communist violence. But not one person has taken a candle and marched to India Gate till today.”
Following Shah’s address in Connaught Place, BJP supporters marched to the CPM headquarters in Gole Market area.
Later, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury told a press meet that the BJP campaign was a “flop show”. Responding to Shah’s charge that the Left workers were killing BJP and RSS workers in Kerala, Yechury alleged that the Sangh was “responsible for starting political violence” in the state.
“The BJP president had to flee from Kerala as there was no response from the people. Here (in Delhi), he just flagged the protest march at Connaught Place but did not arrive at the (protest) meeting venue which is an indication that he himself realises that it is a flop,” Yechury said. “They (BJP) want to divert attention from the growing discontent against Modi government’s performance in last three years,” he said.
