Case Against Union Minister For Controversial Remarks On Kerala Blasts

New Delhi:

A case has been registered against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar over his controversial remarks on Sunday’s serial blasts in Kerala.

Official sources said the case has been registered against the minister for spreading social hatred. “He has been charged for making statements that promote enmity between different groups,” news agency PTI quoted a senior police official as saying.

Mr Chandrasekhar, hours after the serial blasts at a prayer meet in Kerala on Sunday, slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan alleging politics of appeasement.

“Dirty shameless appeasement politics by a discredited CM (and HM) @pinarayivijayan besieged by corruption charges. Sitting in Delhi and protesting against Israel, when in Kerala open calls by Terrorist Hamas for Jihad is causing attacks and bomb blasts on innocent Christians,” he had said on X – formerly known as Twitter.

Dirty shameless appeasement politics by a discredited CM (and HM) @pinarayivijayan besieged by corruption charges

Sitting in Delhi and protesting against Israel , when in Kerala open calls by Terrorist Hamas for Jihad is causing attacks and bomb blasts on innocent christians https://t.co/MQH0ycZsqu

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) October 29, 2023

He also hit out at Mr Vijayan over a Hamas operative’s virtual address at an event organised by a religious group in Malappuram. “Only kashtam is that the head of terror organization Hamas is allowed by two political parties of INDIA alliance to freely preach hate and jihad in our state. Simple really if you choose to understand this and that the killing and harming of innocents is always a consequence of this type of politics,” he said. 

Responding to Mr Chandrasekhar, the Chief Minister said that his remarks reflected a larger communal agenda. “Those who are poisonous will keep spewing their venom. As a responsible minister, he should have shown minimum respect for the investigating agencies that are looking into the incident. It is still early days in the ongoing investigation and they have already started making public statements targeting a particular section of the population,” he said.

As the war of words escalated, Mr Chandrasekhar further alleged that under Chief Minister’s rule – Kerala has shown “increased tolerance towards radical elements”.

“Under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala has shown increasing tolerance towards radical elements and radicalization. There is a history of appeasement of radical elements by both the Congress and the Left in Kerala,” he said.

Two women and a 12-year-old girl were killed and 50 people were injured in a series of blasts at a convention centre in Kerala on Sunday. At least three blasts were reported within minutes after the prayer meeting started.

Hours later, the suspect, a 48-year-old man from the same Christian denomination Jehovah’s Witnesses that organised the prayer meet, claimed responsibility for the blasts and surrendered.