Kerala CM pays tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, calls people to stand firm against communal politics

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday (January 30) paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his death anniversary and urged the public to stand firm against all forms of communal politics.

Vijayan said that Gandhi stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and secularism and therefore, he was "a thorn in the eyes of the majority communal forces".

"The India envisioned by Gandhi was completely opposed to the Hindutva national concept of the Sangh Parivar," the CM said in a Facebook post.

He further contended that now is a time when RSS-led Sangh Parivar organisations -- 'which fear pluralism and coexistence' -- are implementing their political goals by spreading hatred and indulging in divisive politics.

The CM also pointed out that the ban on RSS, following Gandhi's assassination, was being arbitrarily omitted from the school syllabus.

Vijayan said that not just majority communalism, but minority communalism is also posing a threat to the secularism of the country as they both reinforce each other.

Referring to the Jamaat-e-Islami, he said that the threat posed by such "political Islamists" was serious as they stood for a religion-based state.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan also paid tribute to the Father of the Nation on his death anniversary, saying that "today was the day when the idea of India suffered a deep wound".

He said that Mahatma Gandhi's greatness was increasing day-by-day "even at a time when those who fear his name and image are ruling the country".

Satheesan alleged that Sangh Parivar is trying to make people forget Mahatma Gandhi.

"When they see that we do not forget Gandhi, they erase books and writings about him or hide them from us," he claimed.

Gandhi, the most prominent face of India's freedom movement, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on this day in 1948.