Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan yesterday made it clear that he was not bothered by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Kundan Chandrawat’s bounty offer for having him killed.
“The RSS in the past has killed others but I have to move around and I will,” Vijayan said in his characteristic style.
However, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence after the Madhya Pradesh RSS leader declared a Rs10mn bounty for anyone beheading Vijayan.
Holding the chief minister responsible for the killing of 300 RSS activists in Kerala, Chandrawat on Wednesday said he would give his entire property worth over Rs1mn to whoever kills the Marxist veteran.
The statement was made at Ujjain in the presence of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Chintaman Malviya, BJP MLA Mohan Yadav and other RSS leaders.
The video of the RSS leader making the remarks have gone viral.
Yesterday Chandrawat said he did not regret his remarks even as the Kerala unit of the RSS claimed Chandrawat was not speaking for the RSS. The Kerala RSS unit leader J Nandakumar said: “The RSS never speaks in such a manner and we strongly condemn it. We have always followed the policy of engaging in democratic forms of protests. We will continue to do that against the attacks the CPI-M has launched on us in Kerala.”
Yechury said: “The RSS has revealed its true colours as a terrorist outfit. Will the PM and his government stop remaining silent?”
The CPI-M said in a separate statement: “The frustration of RSS is spilling out into the open. The CPI-M condemns Chandrawat’s statement and demands quick action.
“Will the BJP-led government in (Madhya Pradesh) and at the Centre take any action against them? Will they come out and condemn it?
“If no, then it is clear which ideology they are propagating and whose government it is,” it said.
Meanwhile the Kerala unit of the Congress yesterday described the Vijayan government as an “utter failure” and said senior officials were engaged in a free-for-all among themselves.
Senior Congress legislator V D Sateeshan, while seeking leave for an adjournment motion, said the Vijayan government has failed on all fronts, as top officials are at war with one another and have very little time to spare for governance.
“All top officials, from the chief secretary to senior bureaucrats and top police officials, are now busy with court cases and what is strange is that some of these cases have been filed by the ‘agents’ of these officials against their adversaries,” said Sateeshan.
He was apparently referring to vigilance director Jacob Thomas raiding the homes of senior IAS officials like K M Abraham and Tom Jose some time back, with Abraham now seeking a probe against Thomas.
Sateeshan also pointed to the observation of the Kerala High Court last month that “things have come to a stage where ‘Vigilance rule’ was prevailing in Kerala”.
“Owing to various actions of the vigilance department, the movement of files has become extremely slow. With the vigilance department on a rampage, government officials are afraid to take decisions for the fear of cases getting registered against them and, therefore, governance has come to a standstill.”
Pinarayi Vijayan
