IN a concerted attempt against Kerala, senior BJP leader and finance minister Arun Jaitley visited the state capital Thiruvananthapuram on August 6, and spread out falsehoods against the Kerala government and the CPI(M). In order to malign Kerala and its achievements for many decades, the BJP rallied RSS affiliated journalists from national media to Kerala to cover the minister’s programme. He visited the relatives of an RSS activist who was killed in a gang attack at Srikaryam in Thiruvananthapuram. BJP politicised this killing and tried to attack the CPI(M) workers during the last week. Arun Jaitley visited Kerala, two days after RSS leaders in Delhi demanded President’s Rule in the state.

At a media conference in Thiruvananthapuram on the same day, Jaitley compared the CPI (M) workers to terrorists and Kerala to a terror state. People of Kerala need peace in the state. Attack on BJP workers is escalating when LDF comes to power. Police have become mere spectators when the attack in going on, he added.

Giving a befitting reply to the lying central minister, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that this kind of hate campaign will affect investment possibilities of Kerala. The police has taken an impartial action against all perpetrators of criminal activities, he told in a press conference after an all party meeting in which all parties announced their commitment to ensure peace.

CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan dared the central government and BJP leadership to dismiss the LDF government. Jaitley’s political exercise is a farce. LDF has the mandate of the people and it has a huge mass base, he said after inaugurating a gathering of CPI(M) martyrs’ kith and kin near Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram.

Over the years, the CPI(M) has suffered the most in terms of the number of people killed in political violence. Between 1971 and 2017, about 527 CPI(M) workers were killed. On the other hand, all the other parties put together lost about 442 lives. Of these 442, only 185 belonged to the RSS/BJP/ABVP. Now take the last 11 years: 47 CPI(M) workers were killed; 40 BJP/RSS workers were killed; 4 Congress workers were killed. Clearly, it is the CPI(M) which has been attacked the most.