Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday visited the family of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist allegedly murdered by Marxist workers in Kerala and called it a “barbaric” crime that would have “even embarrassed a terrorist”.
“Rajesh had 89 wounds on his body. The kind of wounds inflicted would have even embarrassed a terrorist,” Jaitley said after meeting the family members of E Rajesh, 34, who was hacked to death a week ago.
“It is cruelty of a barbaric nature... Even an enemy country wouldn’t do this kind of brutality but a political party did this,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader added.
“You have a series of these incidents in which a large number of political workers are being killed, party offices have been attacked; our president of the state unit got saved by a whisker.
“We will not forget this heinous act. I am here to express my solidarity on behalf of our party,” the minister added.
Jaitley, who drove from the airport to Rajesh’s home, met his wife, two children and other family members.
He then addressed a commemorative meeting where he accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) government and police of being “mute spectators” and said the killings were targeted murders and not scuffles leading to violence.
“Governments are elected to do good for the people,” he said. “But in Kerala the ruling party is perpetrating violence on the people. This type of ideology won’t crush our ideology.”
The minister said if a similar incident had happened in a BJP-ruled state, there would have been a hue and cry.
“Every time the LDF (Left Democratic Front) is in power, incidents of violence increase... What is needed now is neutrality by police.
“We need political will and determination by the state government to discipline its own cadre rather let them loose on the political opponents,” he said.
Jaitley said the BJP will support the families of workers killed by Marxists.
“Kerala is blessed with nature’s bounty and the challenge for any government should be how to make it the most prosperous in the country,” Jaitley said.
“But if the policy gets diverted and the prime concentration is to use the cadres to eliminate opponents and create an environment of violence, then the party in power has to seriously introspect.”
On a day’s visit to Kerala, Jaitley was received at the airport by leaders of the BJP in the state.
Also yesterday, the CPM organised a sit-in protest in front of the Raj Bhavan, the official residence of Governor P Sathasivam, asking Jaitley to also visit the families of its cadres allegedly killed by BJP and RSS workers.
Anavoor Nagappan, the Thiruvananthapuram district secretary of the CPM, told reporters that those who participated in the protest included 21 family members of party activists killed in the state from 1980.
“Jaitley should not just restrict his visit to just the RSS worker’s home. All these people who are sitting here have lost their near and dear ones to BJP and RSS workers,” he said.
Those who joined the protest included state CPM secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and LDF convener Vaikom Viswam.
Since Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assumed office last year, there have been 14 murders, nine of them BJP, two each of the CPM and Muslim League, and a BJP sympathiser who was killed hardly a kilometre away from his home.
The CPM says it has 564 “martyrs” while the BJP claims it had lost nearly 300 lives since 1969. The BJP also claims 13 of its workers were killed by the CPM since Vijayan took over and they feel unsafe under his rule.
The senior leader’s visit is also seen as a last-ditch attempt by the BJP to establish itself as a dominant force in the state.
Last week, Governor P Sathasivam asked Vijayan to ensure peace in the state.