Over 300 members of the youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), part of the Congress-led UPA alliance, were booked on Wednesday for allegedly raising provocative slogans during a march in this northern Kerala district, PTI reported.
At a protest rally being held against the Manipur violence in Kanhangad under the Kasaragod district, members of the Muslim League raised slogans like “will hang Hindus in front of temples and burn them alive”.
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A controversy erupted over the protest rally for the provocative sloganeering by a section of protesters.
Youth League State General Secretary P K Firoz said the worker who raised the provocative slogan has been expelled from the organisation. He also said the worker shouted slogans deviating from the printed version given to the workers for raising during the march.
“It is an unpardonable mistake,” said the Muslim Youth League in a statement.
300 Muslim League leaders booked
An officer of the Hosdurg police station said the cases were registered against 300 persons who participated in the Youth League march based on a complaint filed by the BJP Kanhangad mandala president, PTI reported.
They have been booked under Section 153A of the IPC, which deals with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.
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‘Are Hindus & Christians safe in Kerala?’ asks BJP
BJP leader Amit Malviya shared the video of the rally where the provocative slogans were raised and questioned if the “Hindus and Christians are safe in Kerala?”
“Youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League, an ally of the Congress, held a rally in Kerala’s Kasaragod, and raised vile anti-Hindu slogans, threatening to hang them (Hindus) in front of Temples and burn them alive…,” the BJP leader said.
Hitting out at Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Malviya said, “They wouldn’t have dared to go this far had the Pinarayi government not been supporting them. Are Hindus and Christians now safe in Kerala?”
Condemning the incident, Kerala BJP said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi must be held accountable for the actions of the party he calls ‘secular’.
The protest rally was carried out over the violence in Manipur which erupted on May 3 after a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.