Thiruvananthapuram: After BJP intellectual cell convener T. G. Mohandas's vitriolic comments which had put the party on the defensive, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan had to defend Hindu Aikya Vedi president K. P. Sasikala, whom the police booked for hate speech, openly. But the trouble is brewing within the party over their controversial remarks. Mr Mohandas’s had claimed that St. Andrew's Basilica, Arthunkal, in Alappuzha district, was once a Siva temple and the Hindus should reclaim it.
He tweeted the church would be destroyed only after crossing the corpse of the last Hindu in the region, though it was originally a Shiva temple and if excavated, one could find its remains. A case was registered based on a complaint lodged by AIYF district secretary T. T. Jismon before S. Surendran, Alappuzha police chief, saying the tweet will create communal hatred. A top BJP leader told DC that already few leaders had shot off complaints to party president Amit Shah. “Just when the party is trying to regain the lost image after the medical college scam, leaders like Mr Mohandas and Ms Sasikala are defaming the party further,” said a top leader.
When senior journalist Gauri Lankesh was killed in Bengaluru, Mr Mohandas tweeted in Malayalam asking how many people in Kerala knew her, facing a backlash from Twitterati. “Would you have killed everyone whom you don’t know?" asked senior journalist B. R. P. Bhaskar. Just when this controversial tweet was getting forgotten it was the turn of Ms Sasikala to come up with yet another hate speech at Paravur in Ernakulam. She allegedly urged secular writers to conduct “Mrityunjaya Homam” at Lord Shiva temples to save them from meeting a fate similar to that of the journalist-activist. The police said Ms Sasikala faced charges of wantonly giving provocation with the intention to cause a riot.
