JOIN US'Sabarimala showed how Left govt disrespect culture'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has continued his attack on the CPM and the Congress over the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple women entry row.
In his second visit to Kerala in hardly two weeks time on Sunday, the Prime Minister said that it was unfortunate to see that the cultural ethos of Kerala was under attack from the ruling Communist government in Kerala. The people of the nation are seeing the manner in which the Communist government was disrespecting all aspects of our culture. I fail to understand why the Communists were undermining our centuries-old culture and civilisation. The Congress has been maintaining one stand in Kerala and another in Delhi on the Sabarimala issue, the Prime Minister accused.
He was addressing a Yuva Morcha march at Thrissur in central Kerala. Thousands of party workers, sympathisers and public assembled at the iconic Thekkinkadu ground, close to the Vadakkumnathan Temple, where the famous Thrissur pooram is performed.
It may be recalled that during his visit to Kollam in Kerala on January 15 also Modi strongly criticised the stands of the Communist and the Congress on the Sabarimala issue, and also hailed the stand of the BJP on the issue. He even said that the stand of the Communist government would go down in history as one of the most shameful behaviours by any party and government.
Modi's repeated attack on the Communist and Congress over the Sabarimala issue assumed significance in Kerala as the BJP was trying to cash-in on the Sabarimala women entry issue in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. While the CPM government in Kerala tried to implement the Supreme Court order lifting ban on entry of women in 10-50 age group to the hill shrine, the BJP-RSS and other Hindu outfits were jointly opposing women entry citing tradition. The Congress had a mixed stand over the issue with even Rahul Gandhi who initially favoured entry of women, later toned down his stand.
Modi also said that that the opposition parties were criticising the Election Commission of India owing to their dislike towards 'Modi' and thereby showing disrespect to the democracy of the nation. India's democratic ethos was questioned on foreign soil and even a top Congress leader was present at the press conference held in London recently on the electronic voting machine. It amounted to undermining the mandate of the people of India. The Congress will have to answer the people of Indian on it. The Congress and Communist should stop disrespecting democratic institutions in their dislike for Modi, he said.
While the decision to give Padma Bhushan award to ISRO former scientist Nambi Narayanan had triggered a row in Kerala with the former senior IPS officer and a probable BJP candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, T P Senkumar, criticising it, Modi upheld the decision to give the Padma award to Mr. Narayanan. He said that Narayanan who was a hard working scientist was wrongly framed in a case by the Congress for their political interests by ignoring the nation's strategic interests. The
Modi listed out the developments in the country over the last four years in sectors like mobile phone production, LPG network, electrification, sanitation and ease of doing business. He also said that India was aiming at reducing crude oil import by about 10 per cent by 2021 by developing biofuel in a big way. The Kochi-Mangalore-Bangalore gas line project for Rs. 5,000 would be completed soon. He said that he would continue to be a watchman and protect the nation from any attacks against the culture and would not allow corruption
Also read: Sabarimala: CPM fights faith vs Constitution battle