Mangaluru: As the port city observed an RSS imposed shutdown, Mangaluru’s Nehru Maidan saw more than 5,000 Communist supporters converge at the ‘Sauhardha harmony’ rally organised by the CPM on Saturday, where Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan warned against the rise of the saffronists. Declaring ‘I am not scared of the RSS,’ he laid the blame for the communal tension in the country at the RSS’ door, and called on all secular forces to join hands against the tyranny of the saffron parent organisation.
Bringing up the killing of Communist cadres in Kerala, which has seen the alleged elimination of 205 members of the party by RSS in recent months, which Mr Vijayan claimed was one step short of bringing the BJP into the state, he said: “Kerala is a strong secular state due to the movement by Sri Narayana Guru and others. But RSS is trying to enter the state and spread communal tension. We CPM are facing the ire of RSS for not allowing their ideology of intolerance,” he said.
Unleashing a major broadside against the RSS in an area where communal tensions run high, he said “RSS does not believe in freedom of expression. Instead it wants people to listen to its tune. Those who do not fall in line are attacked. Be it Pansare, M. M. Kalburgi or Dabholkar who were killed or K. S. Bhagvan, Jananpeeth Awardee Girish Karnad who were targeted by RSS.
For his statement, intellectual U R Ananthamurthy was sent a ticket to Pakistan, a few months before his death. Even actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Amir Khan, Jnanpeeth awardee M T Vasudevan Nair were asked to go to Pakistan when they expressed their views independently." "RSS has no special right on India. In fact India belongs to all of us. All secular forces should unite against the agenda of RSS," he said. "RSS has shown intolerance by calling a hartal today. Now I may be getting strong police security as CM. But I walked amidst their (RSS) sickles and sticks during my student days at Brennan College. What can these people do to me now?" Vijayan said, drawing huge applause from the party workers.
"Some said that I will not be allowed to enter Mangaluru. But I have come to attend the programme. Nobody can prevent me from moving as an ordinary man," he said and appreciated the Karnataka government for security arrangements and said this has to be a lesson. He lashed out at the union government and home minister for speaking against secularism. Speaking about the killing of Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Vijayan defined Nathuram Godse as just a weapon of RSS.
"RSS had distributed sweets in various places on the death of Gandhiji. Godse was just an weapon of RSS," he said, accusing the RSS of targeting Dalits and Minorities. "They decide what others have to eat! In Una and Dadri, Dalits and Minorities are assaulted as RSS suspected them to be having beef," he said. He also attacked RSS for targeting its own men in coastal district. "In your place (DK and Udupi) you have seen these people attacking their own people in cases like Pratap or Praveen Poojary," he said. Vijayan who said the RSS sided with the British in India's independence struggle, compared RSS to Hitler.
