Left is promoting ‘jihadi terrorism’ in Kerala: Yogi
KEECHERI/KANNUR (KERALA): The BJP on Wednesday fielded Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath as part of its campaign against the killing of saffron activists allegedly by the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala.
Mounting a blistering attack on the Left, the firebrand Hindutva leader accused the Left party of promoting “jihadi terrorism” and said it was its nature to “grab power at gunpoint”.
The Uttar Pradesh CM also raked up the contentious issue of ‘love jihad’, accusing the Kerala government of not taking steps to check the “dangerous trend”.
Leading the Jan Raksha Yatra a day after BJP president Amit Shah launched the party’s 15-day campaign for “people’s protection”, Adityanath said Kerala occupied an important place in the Sanatan Hindu tradition, and wondered how the “foreign ideology” of Communism entered the state.
“The CPI(M) raises slogans about secularism but promotes jihadi terrorism. Kerala is a holy land where this is unacceptable. Here only the nationalist ideology should be promoted,” he said.
Adityanath claimed that God’s own country, as Kerala is often called, has been witnessing political violence sponsored by the ruling party. “It is in the nature of the Left party to grab power at gunpoint,” he said. “There is no scope for violence in democracy, but, unfortunately, Kerala has been witnessing politically- sponsored violence. With this ‘yatra’, we will make people aware of the CPI(M)’s misrule,” he said.
He said if the CPI(M) believes in democracy, it will have to answer questions about the political killings taking place in Kerala.
Later, speaking to the media, he dwelt on ‘love jihad’, a term coined by the Hindu right to flag the issue of Hindu women marrying Muslim men, and called it a dangerous trend.
“Love jihad is a dangerous trend. The Kerala government has not taken effective steps to check it. The SC has already passed an order on it and NIA is investigating it,” he said. He was responding to a question about a case involving the marriage of a Muslim man with a Hindu woman who converted to Islam before tying the nuptial knot.
TORONTO: Newly-minted leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Jagmeet Singh has already attracted controversy with his refusal to condemn the practice at some Canadian gurdwaras of displaying portraits of a man considered the “mastermind” of the Air India flight 182 terrorist bombing in 1985 that claimed 329 lives.
Asked repeatedly during an interview on national broadcaster CBC to disavow this practice of honouring Talwinder Singh Parmar as a “shaheed” or martyr, Singh avoided addressing the specific issue though he described the Kanishka bombing as a “heinous massacre”.
“I don’t know who’s responsible (for the bombing) but I think we need to find out who’s responsible, we need to make sure the investigation results in a conviction of someone who is actually responsible,” Singh said.
This reluctance to denounce such glorification has deeply “disappointed” the families of those who perished in the bombing that was blamed on the pro-Khalistan Babbar Khalsa militant group. There were 268 Canadian citizens among the dead and Inder Singh Reyat was the only person convicted in the case related to the bombing.
Bal Gupta, chair of Air India 182 Families’ Association, said of the displaying of such portraits: “The whole thing is glorifying terrorism and terrorists, it amounts to promoting terrorism.”
On Jagmeet Singh staying mum on the matter, Gupta commented, “He should have disowned the glorification of terrorism, even suspected terrorism or promoters of terrorism. He should have clearly said that, but he has every right to his opinion.”
Gupta’s wife Ramwati was among the victims of the attack.
Gupta, who lives in Toronto, watched the interview and was “disappointed” at Singh’s non-reaction. Referring to the host of the CBC programme on which Singh appeared, Gupta said, “I think Mr (Terry) Milewski did a good job to put him on the spot.” Following the interview, Milewski tweeted, “New NDP leader refuses to denounce display of ‘martyr’ posters of Air India bomber.”
On Sunday, Singh became the first person of Indian and Sikh heritage to be elected leader of one of Canada’s three largest national parties. Singh, denied a visa by India in 2013, will lead NDP’s campaign for the federal election in October 2019.
Commenting on the issue, Shuvaloy Majumdar, Munk Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa said, “Silence speaks volumes. He sidestepped the question three times, which is unconscionable given that this is the biggest terrorist incident that Canada has experienced.”
Majumdar said this issue and those related to it will “continue to plague” Singh. “Federal leaders have a moral obligation in Canada to condemn terrorism in all forms unequivocally and give no oxygen to the idea that there is legitimacy behind the Khalistan movement,” he said.
THERE WERE 268 CANADIAN CITIZENS AMONG THE DEAD AND INDER SINGH REYAT WAS THE ONLY PERSON CONVICTED IN THE CASE RELATED TO THE BOMBING