Indira Gandhi government was first to say that Moplah rebellion was communal riot, says Sreejith Panickar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sreejith Panickar has said that it was the Indira Gandhi government that first said that the Moplah rebellion could not be accepted as part of the freedom struggle and that it was a communal riot.

'In August 1973, CK Chandrappan demanded in Parliament that the Central Government should consider the Malabar rebellion as a freedom struggle and provide pensions to those who took part in it. However, Uma Shankar Dikshit, the home minister in the Indira Gandhi cabinet, said that it was not possible as the Malabar rebellion cannot be considered as a freedom struggle. The only basis for treating people as freedom fighters is whether they worked for the liberation of India from foreign rule. The history of the Moplah riots is contrary to the desire of the central government to consider it as a freedom struggle. Uma Shankar Dikshit also said that it was basically and factually a communal riot,' Sreejith Panickar wrote on his Facebook page.