Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar says Kerala tolerant towards radical elements, CM Vijayan criticizes

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday alleged that Kerala under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has shown tolerance towards radical elements and radicalisation.

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Chandrasekhar was hitting back at the CM who a day ago slammed the BJP leader over his social media posts criticising Vijayan over the blasts at a religious gathering in Kalamassery near here.

Terming the BJP leader’s posts as part of his communal stand, Vijayan, without naming Chandrasekhar, sought to know based on what information the union minister made such remarks against him and how a person holding a responsible position could come out with such statements while the investigation was going on.

Vijayan, during a brief press meet held at the Secretariat complex in Thiruvananthapuram, had alleged that the statements by the BJP leader were the reflection of an absolute communal outlook.

Responding to the CM’s remarks, Chandrasekhar clarified that he did not mention any community in his post on the social media platform X.

“I had talked about Hamas and it was almost like the CM was trying to equate Hamas with the broader Muslim brothers and sisters of our state and country,” he contended.

Chandrasekhar, on Sunday after reports of the blasts came out, had posted on X – “Dirty shameless appeasement politics by a discredited CM (and HM) @pinarayivijayan besieged by corruption charges.

“Sitting in Delhi and protesting against Israel, when in Kerala open calls by Terrorist Hamas for Jihad is causing attacks and bomb blasts on innocent Christians.”

The Union Minister said that his post was “in the context of the Hamas chief being given an opportunity, with no intervention by the Kerala government or police, to address a large gathering of youth and inciting them with radicalism.”

“What I have said, what I have always said and what our party has always said is that under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala has increasingly shown a tolerance towards radical elements and radicalisation,” Chandrasekhar alleged.

He further alleged that both the Congress and the Left in Kerala have a history of appeasement of radical elements in the state.

The Union MoS claimed that both of them have been turning a blind eye to the growing radicalism in the southern state.

The blasts occurred at a convention centre in Kalamassery near Kochi that was hosting a prayer meeting of the Jehovah’s Witnesses – a Christian religious group that originated in the US in the 19th century – on Sunday.

Initially, one woman had died and 60 were injured, six of them critically, in the blasts.

Subsequently, one of the six critically injured – a 53-year-old woman – succumbed to her injuries.

By Monday morning, the death toll rose to three with the death of a 12-year-old girl who had suffered 95 per cent burns in the incident.