Thiruvananthapuram: On Sunday, veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani, now in Kerala, made a fervent appeal to end “political untouchability”. The senior BJP leader went on to say that his party would not mind alliances with any outfit. On Monday, the BJP leader’s statement was strongly rebutted by Kerala Communist Party of India Marxist state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
Vijayan made it clear that his party would have nothing to do with the BJP and alleged that Advani was a prisoner of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh culture, adding that the CPM would maintain its strong opposition to the BJP, which it considered a danger to the national secular polity.
Advani’s statement on Sunday was seen by political observers as an attempt by the BJP to warm up to the CPM, but Vijayan has put paid to those plans in no uncertain terms. Vijayan, who is also a CPM politburo member, said his party would continue to distance itself from the BJP and not compromise on that matter.
To drive home his point of the CPM not wanting any compromise with the BJP, Vijayan said Advani’s rath yatra had stirred communal passions and the demolition of the Babri Masjid had weakened the secular polity of the country. Vijayan alleged that in the wake of the communal riots in Gujarat when Atal Behari Vajpayee wanted to remove Narendra Modi from the chief ministership, it was Advani who supported Modi.
