Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the latter said that the situation in Kerala is such that no one can utter the name of god and that people are being charged with falses cases. Reacting to these claims, Pinarayi Vijayan, according to media reports, accused the PM of making false statements and also stated that it was unbecoming of a person of his stature.
Narendra Modi made these remarks during his speech in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. In his speech, Modi had said that the CPI(M) government is charging people with false cases and that the BJP will resist this and stand as “chowkidars”.
According to a report by Deccan Chronicle, Pinarayi Vijayan said that the cases registered in Kerala had nothing to do with invoking god’s name. “Only those who unleashed violence in the name of religion were booked. Such criminals may get away in BJP-ruled states, but in Kerala, they will face strict action,” said the Kerala CM.
Pinarayi Vijayan went on to say that the people in Kerala know the truth and such statements by Modi would not build a good image in the minds of the people about their Prime Minister.
According to a report by the Times of India (TOI), the Kerala Chief Minister said that the BJP need not take credit for preserving faith and tradition as it is already part of the secular culture of India. He said that by indirectly opposing the Supreme Court verdict regarding Sabarimala, the BJP was challenging the Constitution, the legal system, the rule of law and democracy.
Referring to Modi’s statements about the Lavalin case in which Pinarayi Vijayan was an accused, TOI quoted him saying, “Such an attitude is obvious in the PM’s statement on the Lavalin case, too. The attempts to hold as accused someone who has been acquitted by the court is also a challenge against the court and the rule of law.”