THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior BJP leader and Union finance and defence minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday alleged that Kerala witnessed a spurt in political violence whenever a Left Democratic Front (LDF) regime came to power and the onus on putting an end to the culture of violence lay with the state government. “The state government must ensure that the perpetrators of such heinous crimes are brought to book and the police is expected to be fair,” he said addressing a press meet here on Sunday. Mr Jaitley visited the home of slain RSS leader S.L. Rajesh at Sreeka-riyam here as directed by the central leadership of the RSS and the BJP. “You have political opponents being killed here,” he said.
“Let’s assume if this kind of political violence had taken place in a BJP or NDA-ruled state, what would’ve happened? Awards would have been returned, Parliament will not have been allowed to function and campaigns would be carried out within and outside country.” Mr Jaitley said there are victims on both the sides, but denied RSS role in them. He, however, declined to answer a question whether the state had failed to maintain law and order or whether it should come under presidential rule.
He said the all-party meet, which was underway while he was addressing the press conference, to end the political violence, was a positive step. The minister said incidents of violence will not come to an end until and unless the police conducted a fair probe into such incidents. Pointing out that there were 89 wounds on Rajesh’s body, the union defence minister said the “barbaric act” would have embarrassed even a terrorist. “We will not forget this heinous act. I am here to express my solidarity on behalf of our party. The workers of Kerala are not alone, the whole nation is with you,” Mr Jaitley said, referring to the brutal way Rajesh was killed. He reiterated that Kerala needs peace because it deserves peace, stability and democracy at its very best.
“The buck stops with the ruling political party,” Mr Jaitley said. “Political will and determination by the state government is the need of the hour to discipline its own cadres rather than let them loose on political opponents.” When asked if he would meet the family members of 21 victims from the CPM, the BJP leader said he would meet anyone who wanted to do so. “It’s my responsibility,” he said. Mr Jaitley backed BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan when the medical college scam was brought to his notice. Recalling that a leader was expelled from the party, he said he complimented the state president and his team for taking immediate action against the leader. “When a leader is caught for an impropriety in other parties, what normally happens is to suppress the controversy,” he said. “We have full confidence in the state president and I am sure they will take appropriate action in due course.”
