A court in Kerala’s Kannur on Monday, July 12, issued a notice to VD Satheesan, the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, in connection with a case filed by the RSS against his remarks related to the organisation's ideologue M S Golwalkar. A Munsiff court issued notice to the senior Congress leader and directed him to appear before it on August 12.
The case was filed by an office-bearer of RSS, KK Balaram, alleging that Satheesan had compared the former state minister Saji Cheriyan's remarks about the Constitution with the content in Golwalkar's book, 'Bunch of Thoughts'. On July 9, Satheesan rejected the legal notice issued by the RSS with the "contempt it deserves", and said he was ready to face any legal action over the matter. "I made the statement quoting the page number of the book," he had said.
Cheriyan had, on Wednesday, announced his resignation amid criticism from various quarters, including the Opposition, over his remarks on the Constitution. During a recent political programme held in Pathanamthitta, the former minister had alleged that the Constitution of the country "condones exploitation" and is written in a way helping to "plunder" the people of the country, drawing sharp reaction from the Opposition parties, who sought his immediate removal from the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF Cabinet. Saji Cheriyan resigned shortly after.
Satheesan had said he stood by his statement that the remarks against the Constitution by the former minister were from a book penned by RSS ideologue Golwalkar.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media in Kochi on Sunday, the Hindu Aikya Vedi's state general secretary RV Babu said that Satheeshan had approached the Kerala RSS leadership for helping him win the assembly election from Paravur constituency. RV Babu had said that VD Satheeshan had attended the programme of the sangh, in which he himself had lit a lamp in front of Golwalkar’s photograph.
In response, VD Satheeshan said that the book launch of RSS ideologue, the late P Parameswaran, was not an RSS event. It was a book release function to which he was invited by the late Janata Dal leader and former minister, MP Veerendra Kumar. He said that veteran CPI(M) leader and former Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan had released the book at Thiruvananthapuram and he had attended the function at Thrissur. He said that 'Swami Vivekananda and an enlightened Kerala' was the book release in which he participated.
With PTI and IANS inputs