Golwalkar's name for biotechnology centre in Kerala triggers row

The Centre has decided to name the centre as 'Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Disease in Cancer and Viral Infection'

Centre's decision to name the new campus of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Thiruvananthapuram after RSS leader M S Golwalkar has triggered a political row in Kerala with the Congress and the ruling CPM terming it as a move of the BJP government to aggravate communalism.

Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday announced that the new centre coming up in Thiruvananthapuram would be named as 'Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Disease in Cancer and Viral Infection'. RGCB is an autonomous institute of the department of Biotechnology.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted: "'Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Disease in Cancer & Viral Infection'! What is MSG's contribution to science other than promoting the disease of communalism?"

Kerala opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging that the new campus should be also named after Rajiv Gandhi. The institute was named after Rajiv Gandhi considering his valuable contribution to the science and technology as well as building up modern India. RSS is an organisation that is widely accused of triggering communal divide and also allegedly involved in communal riots. Hence naming the institute after a RSS leader could not be accepted at all as it would only help in aggravating communalism, he said.

CPM Kerala secretary in-charge A Vijayaraghavan termed the decision to name the institute after Golwalkar as an attempt of BJP to bring communal elements to the forefront. CPM politburo member M A Baby alleged that the decision was part of attempts by RSS to trigger communal divide in Kerala and take advantage of it. Golwalkar was one who tried to trigger communal hatred and hence the decision to name new campus of RGCB after him was not at all acceptable, he said.

RGCB's new campus being developed in three phases is envisaged as a knowledge centre and hub for mid and high level innovation. The upcoming campus will be a unique knowledge centre and hub for mid and high level innovation, founded on deep and advanced level technical platforms, multi-disciplinary courses that will seed growth and innovation.

Dr Vardhan said the new campus would strive to begin a state-of-the art advanced centre for Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics offering cutting edge technologies, therapies, clinical trials for cancer vaccines and immunotherapeutic. It will also have facilities for therapies such as stem cell replacement, Gene therapy, molecular tumor, targeting and imaging.