THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPI mounts pressure on the state government to seek legal opinion from Attorney General on the Supreme Court’s latest verdict on Sabarimala. The CPI state leadership has urged the government to end the confusion regarding Sabarimala women entry. Party state secretary Kanam Rajendran said the government should not go by all that the police says on Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Kanam hit out at slapping of UAPA cases and arrest of two CPM workers in Pantharikavu. The CPI leader indirectly criticized the CPM state leadership. “I have no knowledge about the links between Maoists and Muslim radical organisations,” he said and added that draconian and black laws like UAPA should not be invoked by governments led by the left parties and there no reason for two opinions among the Left on this issue.
Kanam said he has no respect for communist leaders who blindly believed in police reports. He was indirectly referring to CPM district secretary Mohanan Masters's charge that the Maoists were being supported by the Muslim radical organisations in the state, while speaking at a meeting against UAPA in Kozhikode.
He said the UAPA case against the two youths weakened the nationwide struggle against the draconian law.
On Maoist encounter killings in Manjakandi in Palakkad district, Kanam said those having divergent political views should not be dealt with bullets. The Maoi-sts operating in Western Ghats are not known to be posing major threat.
The police may have their own compulsions and vested interests for deliberately portraying them as a big threat.
He said the chief secretary had recently raised a similar argument. The Kerala society should view these developments with caution. Those who are unable to even walk are being portrayed as dreaded extremists.
Kanam’s criticism aga-inst UAPA and Maoist encounter killings came at a time when the CPM is all set to publicly announce disciplinary action against Allan Shuhaib and Thaha.
‘Seek Attorney General’s opinion on Sabarimala’
Only legal opinion from attorney general will be able to allay the doubts regarding the Supreme Court verdict. The party views will be conveyed to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The government had ea-rlier taken a decision that entry of young wo-men need not be encouraged till the final verdict of Supreme Court based on the legal advise rec-eived from apex court la-wyer Jaideep Gupta. Ad-vocate General had also conveyed a similar opinion to the chief minister.
However, the CPI believes that these opinions had not brought any clarity on the issue. The CPI is of the view that opinion should taken from attorney general as he is part of Supreme Court and hence the government sold take the initiative in this regard.
The government stand should not sent out a message that it was against gender justice and equality for women in all spheres. It should not give an opportunity to the opponents to campaign that the LDF was afraid of political backlash.
