Community leader makes U-turn on ‘hate speech’
NATESAN HAD ALLEGED RELIGIOUS BIAS IN COMPENSATION OF MUSLIM MAN’S DEATH
Kerala Ezhava community leader and general secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, Vellappally Natesan, yesterday made a U-turn on an insensitive comment against a Muslim man who lost his life while attempting to rescue two others.
However, Natesan faces charges for his remarks after the Aluva police registered a case against him for making a statement perceived to cause communal hatred. The development is a setback for the leader as it comes when he is leading a Samatwa Munnetta Yatra (Equality Rally) from the north of the state to its capital.
Natesan compared the death in recent days of Naushad, an autorickshaw driver in Kozhikode who entered a manhole in an attempt to rescue two drainage workers who were suffocating, to the deaths of two handball players who died in a car accident.
The SNDP leader found a communal angle in the two incidents, and remarked that the Muslim driver’s family was given a Rs1 million (Dh55,193) compensation and a job for his wife, while the two Hindu boys who died in the road accident were largely ignored. The statement evoked sharp criticism from different quarters, with Opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan demanding that Natesan be arrested for the “hate speech”.
Natesan did an about-face on his statement and wrote in a social media posting yesterday that Naushad who lost his own life while attempting to rescue two others was in fact a “model for today’s youth”.
He further said: “My organisation and I are only happy about the compensation given to his family by the government.” Natesan, however, criticised media for twisting his statements in a way that would stoke communal hatred.
BJP support
In Kozhikode, Naushad’s mother, Afnavi said yesterday that Natesan’s statement had hurt her. “He did not attempt the rescue effort hoping for compensation,” she said between sobs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president, V. Muraleedharan, came to Natesan’s support, saying the SNDP leader had in fact spoken against the chief minister and not against Naushad. Muraleedharan said his party would react in future, too, if discrimination was shown by the government in its dealing with people from different communities.