Vijayaraghavan’s controversial statement; criticism not against Muslims, says M V Govindan, supports CPM leaders

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior CPM leaders justified and supported the remarks of polit bureau member A Vijayaraghavan against Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi in connection with the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election. LDF convenor T P Ramakrishnan said Vijayaraghavan criticized the activities of the Congress in collaboration with communal organizations. CPM state secretary M V Govindan said the criticism against Jamaat-e-Islami was not against Muslims. P K Sreemathy responded that Vijayaraghavan said things in his speech according to the party policy and did not say anything wrong.

‘The League is trying to keep SDPI and Jamaat-e-Islami firmly in the UDF. There is no communal stance in Vijayaraghavan's remarks. There is no stance that supports communalism. Appeasing the minority majority is not on the party agenda. Priyanka Gandhi's victory has been helped by communal forces,' said T P Ramakrishnan.

The RSS criticism is not against Hindus either. The majority minority communalism is gaining strength. There will be no compromise on that. The majority of the Muslim community is secular. Jamaat-e-Islami is the mainstay of Muslim communalism. Congress is an ally of Jamaat-e-Islami and SDPI. Vijayaraghavan said something very accurate. The votes were received as an ally of SDPI and Jamaat-e-Islami,' said M V Govindan.

In a post on Facebook, Vijayaraghavan said the Congress leadership has shown that it will make peace with any communalism to gain power. Vijayaraghavan also alleged that the Congress sees communalism as a way to defeat the Left. Vijayaraghavan had stated that the victory celebration of the UDF candidate in Palakkad began with the victory celebration of SDPI and that Congress's favorable stance towards extremist communal movements would be strongly opposed.