High on UP victory, RSS now eyes West Bengal and Kerala
BLAME GAME Accuses Trinamool and Left govts of perpetrating violence against Hindus
Riding high on the resounding success of its protégé — the BJP — at the recently concluded five state assembly elections, the RSS has begun shaping its offensive against the Left government in Kerala and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) accuses the TMC and the LDF-led Kerala government of perpetrating violence against Hindus in the states. In the 2016 assembly polls in the two states, the BJP won three seats in West Bengal and one, for the first time ever, in Kerala.
Later this week, the RSS top brass and the chiefs of its over 40 affiliates will congregate in Coimbatore for an annual meeting of the highest decision making body, the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, to take up the issue of violence against Hindus and design its future course of action.
A top Sangh functionary said West Bengal more than Kerala would be the focus, as the TMC government has “failed to protect the rights” of the majority community. “In Kerala, the Sangh’s cadre is at the receiving end of aggravated violence, but in West Bengal it is the common people. And this is going on unchecked,” the functionary said.
This is not the first time that the Sangh has flagged the issue of what it calls “communal violence” in both the states.
In October last year, at its all India executive meeting in Hyderabad, it weighed in on the “politically motivated murders in Kerala” and “attacks on Hindus in West Bengal by Jehadi elements”. Resolutions were also passed on the violence in both states that called for Union government to take urgent action against the perpetrators of violence. Petitions were submitted to the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, human rights commission and nation-wide protests were organised, but there has been no abatement in the attacks.
“Earlier too we raised the issue of molestation and killing of Hindu girls, some from the SC/ST community, by some anti-social elements of the Muslim community. These instances are happening with the connivance of TMC,” the functionary said.
The RSS helmed the electoral campaign for the BJP in the two states; helping it increase its vote share in the states from 6% to 10.5% in the Left bastion of Kerala and from 4% in West Bengal to 10.2%. It is now hoping that the BJP government at the Centre would address its concerns over continued attacks against the majority community. “West Bengal has turned into a laboratory for anti-social elements. Instead of cracking down on those who trying to weaken the country and have robbed poor through ponzi schemes, TMC is busy dropping Hindi names from text books,” a state-level functionary told HT.