POLIT Bureau member of the CPI(M), BV Raghavulu warned that the threats coming from the leaders of the RSS and the BJP pose a danger to the democratic rights, constitutional and secular values and communal harmony in the entire country. He made it clear that it was not an issue confined to the CPI(M) alone and appealed to all democratic, progressive and social forces to oppose with one voice such threats coming from the leaders and activities of the RSS and BJP. Raghavulu strongly condemned the threatening comments of a local BJP MLA Raja Singh and others that they would not allow the chief minister of Kerala and Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), Pinarayi Vijayan  to address the Telangana Struggle Convention for Social Justice scheduled to be held on the 19th of this month in Hyderabad in connection with the conclusion of the five-month-long Mahajana Padayatra undertaken  by the CPI(M) in Telangana. Unable to digest the scheduled participation of Pinarayi Vijayan as the chief guest in the struggle convention, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar elements are resorting to these threats. In this background, Raghavulu, along with Telangana state secretariat members of the CPI(M), G Nagayya, B Venkat and T Jyothi, addressed the media in Hyderabad on March 6.

Making it clear that several incidents in others states confirmed that it had become a habit for the RSS and BJP to resort to such threats and violent activities and referred to such activities indulged in by the RSS in connection with a meeting attended by Vijayan in Mangaluru and the barbarous outburst of an RSS leader in Madhya Pradesh, Kundan Chandrawat, offering Rs 1 crore bounty on Vijayan’s head. Rebutting the lies being repeatedly uttered by the BJP and RSS about incidents and murders in Kerala, Raghavulu reeled out the factual position. As per a report of NDTV, after the LDF came to power in Kerala ten months back, while 11 political murders had taken place, six of the victims were workers of the CPI(M).  According to a survey conducted by News Minit, from September 2000 to 2015, 31 political murders had taken place in Kerala. Out of those victims, 17 were workers of the CPI(M) and LDF and they constituted 60 percent. Among the other victims, 9 (26 percent) belonged to the RSS and others belonged to other parties and organisations.  From these facts, it is obvious that most of the victims of these political murders were workers of the CPI(M) and the LDF, Raghavulu said. In a state where minorities constituted 55 percent of the population, the workers of the CPI(M) have been sacrificing their lives in order to safeguard the property, honour and lives of the people, he explained.

The RSS leaders used to bluff all along that they had nothing to do with the mayhem in Gujarat, but Chandrawat threatened recently that they would repeat the incidents in Gujarat where “we sent 2,000 of them to the kabristan.” Going by the outrageous statements of the RSS leader, should the then chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, be held responsible for that mayhem and obstruct his visits to various parts of the country as prime minister, Raghavulu asked. Would the BJP and RSS leaders agree to this, he posed the question. Such comments were reflecting the foolishness and criminal bent of mind of those leaders, he commented.

Raghavulu asserted that the scheduled struggle convention would be held democratically and for conducting the same, permission of the police also was taken. He appealed to the people to condemn the attempts to obstruct the convention on political grounds. The Mahajana Padayatra has been going on without any obstruction, receiving unprecedented response from the people.  The struggle convention would provide a platform for alternative politics in the state where an alternative plan of action for social justice and all-round development and solution for problems of the people would be announced, Raghavulu said.