Kerala govt's stand on Sabarimala 'most shameful': Modi

Strongly attacking the Kerala government on the Sabarimala women entry issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that stand of the CPM-led Left Democratic Front government will go down in history as one of the most shameful behaviour by any party and government.

We knew that the Communist do not respect Indian history culture and spirituality. But no one thought it would go so shameful. The Congress is no different as they take one stand at Pathanamthitta and another at Parliament. I challenge them to make their stand clear on Sabarimala issue, the Prime Minister said while addressing an NDA convention at Kollam in Kerala on Tuesday.

Modi said that the BJP's stand on the issue was always clear and it stood in the forefront with the people of Kerala and their culture. He expressed hopes that the BJP would form a government in Kerala as it did in Tripura from zero seats.

It may be recalled that while the Left Government in Kerala was for implementing the Supreme Court verdict lifting the ban on entry of women in 10-50 age group to the hill shrine. The BJP-RSS and other Sangh Parivar outfits, as well as many Hindu outfits, were vehemently opposed to it. The state witnessed widespread violence over the issue and non-bailable cases were slapped on hundreds of BJP-RSS workers and leaders.

The Prime Minister who came down to the state on a one day visit also set the tone for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls campaign by highlighting that the BJP-led NDA government has set a strong foundation in various sectors over the last four years and even undertaken a project to double farmers income by 2022. He also said that the economic reservation law would ensure equal opportunity to every Indian and in order to ensure that the existing reservations were not affected the number of seats in institutions will be increased.

Modi alleged that the Congress and Communist opposed the Triple talak owing to vote bank politics. It is a big injustice and many Islamic countries had banned it. The Congress and Communist are two sides of the same coin. The Indian Union Muslim League MPs from Kerala, the second largest partner of the Congress-led UDF in Kerala, opposed the economic reservation.

The Prime Minister said that while those who came to power in the name of farmers did nothing for them, it was the NDA that made historic increase in minimum support price of many commodities. An ambitious project of doubling farmer income by introducing modern technologies for better trading and irrigation facilities were being undertaken. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as the BJP left office lines of farmers were formed for urea. He also assured that the BJP would take steps to revive the Cashew sector of Kerala.

India made fast progress in various sectors like the ease of doing business, mobile manufacturing and startups and even attracted FDI more than what China could. It had also introduced the Ayushman Bharat Insurance scheme that would benefit 50 crore people. "Think of what we could achieve in the next five years when we have laid such a strong foundation in four years. Today India is daring to dream and dreaming to dare," the Prime Minister said.

Earlier speaking at the inauguration of a National Highway 66 by-pass road, the Prime Minister lamented that many infrastructure projects in the country were stalled for 20 to 30 years, causing a huge waste of public money. He said that the Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation (Pragati) initiative could overcome this to large extent. Till now 250 projects worth Rs. 12 lakh crore could be cleared.

The Prime Minister who came on a one day visit to the state inaugurated the NH by-pass in Kollam and various development works under the Swadesh Darshan at the Sree Padmanabha Swami temple in Thiruvananthapuram. He also offered prayers at the temple. Governor P Sathasivam and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan received the Prime Minister who came by afternoon. He left the state by night.