With Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also opposing the Centre's decision to name a bio-technology research institute in Kerala after RSS ideologue M S Golwalkar, the BJP is defending the decision, citing the naming of a boat race in Kerala after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
The decision to name the new campus of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Thiruvananthapuram after Golwalkar triggered strong protest from Congress and CPM leaders alleging that it is a move to trigger communal divide.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has also sent a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan urging that the premier research institute should be named after an eminent Indian scientist and thereby avoid controversies over it.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Sunday that there is nothing wrong in naming the institute after Golwalkar as he was a zoology professor in Banaras University and a patriot.
He further pointed out that a famous boat race in Kerala, Nehru Trophy Boat Race, is named after Jawaharlal Nehru and asked what was Nehru's connection with sports and whether he was a rower. The BJP leader from Kerala also said that RGCB governing council decided the name of the institute.