BJP using communal hatred to divert public attention, says Sitaram Yechury

New Delhi: Hitting back at the BJP over the issue of political killings in Kerala, the CPM on Tuesday alleged that it was using violence and communal hatred to divert public attention from what the Left party called was the “discontent” over the central government’s performance. [caption id=“attachment_2750564” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Sitaram Yechury. Reuters[/caption] CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury rejected BJP chief Amit Shah’s allegation that saffron workers were being targeted and instead accused the BJP and the RSS of spreading “well-planned violence” in the state. “It is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. “Why did they threw bombs at Pinarayi Vijayan’s victory rally? They had been accumulating arms since the day poll results were declared,” he alleged One person had died when a bomb was hurled at Pinarayi in Dharmadam assembly segment soon after Vijayan won from there in state polls in May last year. The Left had accused BJP-RSS activists of carrying out the attack. Yechury alleged that the “violence is being thoughtfully used by BJP to divert people’s attention”. “People are discontent. Modi government has failed at the national level. People of Kerala and Bengal have rejected them,” he told reporters. “Countdown has started for (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. That is why they are using violence and communal hatred as tools to divide people. This had been their methodology for long,” Yechury alleged. He announced that the CPM will organise nation-wide protest on October 9, a counter-offensive by the Left party against the 15-day march launched by Shah yesterday to highlight the CPM’s alleged violence against BJP-RSS party workers in Kerala. “CPI(M) and the people of Kerala and Bengal will give a befitting reply to activities of BJP democratically,” Yechury said. The BJP has alleged that as many as 120 BJP-RSS workers, 84 in Kannur alone, have been killed in the state since 2001, with 14 of them in the chief minister’s home district since he took over the reins last year. The CPM has, in turn, accused the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of resorting to violence and denied the involvement of its government and leadership in the political killings. The BJP is working overtime to become a potent force in the state by 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It had garnered 10 percent and 15 percent votes respectively in 2014 Lok Sabha and 2016 assembly polls.