KOZHIKODE: Condemning the attacks on BJP and RSS workers in Kerala, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said they were being targeted for their different ideology which cannot be allowed in a democracy and pitched for a nation-wide debate on the issue.
Paying homage to those killed in political violence, Mr Modi, who released a book ‘Ahuti’ detailing the “sacrifices” of workers in “upholding the ideals” of Sangh organisations in Kerala, said, “I have seen the condition of some workers here and with how much difficulty they are working just because we have a different ideology.”
Referring to BJP-RSS workers who were targeted in the state, he urged media to take out time to go through the contents of the book.
Though he did not name any outfit, BJP, including its chief Amit Shah, have blamed the CPI(M) for attacks on its and RSS functionaries.
PM Modi also met a party worker who was seriously injured and spent three months in hospital.
“This (violence) is not the road to democracy. The Aahuti book must be discussed … Kerala party workers have made huge sacrifices … national level discussion should take place on what is happening in Kerala,” the Prime Minister said, while inaugurating the birth centenary celebrations of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.
Earlier, inviting Modi to release the book at party’s national executive, party Organisational General Secretary Ramlal claimed 89 BJP-RSS workers have been killed by the political opponents particularly by Marxists and in rest of the figures are higher.
The book, conceived and edited by Sanju Sadanandan and Nirupaka B, alleged that communists indulge not only in “unbridled violence and bloodshed for furthering their thoughts of vengeance buy resort even to the dilution of anything which can remotely be termed as their ideology”.
The book was released at the meet attended by around 1700 party leaders who arrived here from different parts of the state.
“For several decades Sangh and BJP workers sacrificed their lives for the cause of the nation and ideology.
“The whole nation is shocked by this political violence,” BJP president Amit Shah wrote in his message in the book.
Mr Shah alleged that the Communists unleash violence in the state as their ideology and politics are rejected by the people of the country.
“It is a well-known fact that communists have never tolerated any democratic opposition.
“They only know language of violence and indulge in it more so when they are in power,” party’s Kerala state President Kummanam Rajasekharan alleged.
The book narrates events of “Marad Massacre” in 2002 and 2003 in which some RSS-BJP workers were killed by fundamentalists.
PTI