Kerala Police on Tuesday filed a case against Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a BJP leader, for his “offensive” comments following the recent blasts at a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention in Kochi on Sunday.
The case has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 153 (provocation for rioting) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups based on religion, race, and other factors) as well as Section 120 (o) of the Kerala Police Act, relating to causing nuisance and violating public order.
The FIR was registered following a complaint from the cyber cell of the Kochi city police and names the accused as “Rajeev Chandrasekhar – facebook profile name”. It stated Chandrasekhar had made offensive comments against the backdrop of the blasts such as ‘Palestine terrorist group Hamas’ and “spread it through videos and text messages with intention to create communal hatred towards a section and shatter harmony in the state”.
After the blasts, Chandrasekhar had said on Facebook, “Price of appeasement politics of Cong and CPM will always be borne by innocents of all communities – That is what history has taught us. Brazen appeasement politics – shameless even by Cong/CPM/UPA/INDIA alliance standards to invite Terrorist Hamas to spread hate & call for “Jihad” in Kerala. This is the height of irresponsible madness politics. Enough! ‘You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors. You know, eventually, those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard – Hilary Rodham Clinton’.”
The blasts during the Jehovah’s Witnesses convention resulted in three fatalities, including a 12-year-old girl, and multiple injuries. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan strongly objected to Chandrasekhar’s comments, leading to a heated exchange of statements between the two leaders.
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Chandrasekhar, who also serves as the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, visited the blast site in Kochi and vehemently defended himself, asserting that neither he nor his party is communal. He accused the Kerala government of appeasing radical elements and allowing groups like Hamas to promote hatred within the state.
He said, “To accuse me of being communal or to accuse our party of doing anything other than looking after the best interest of every Indian, is to be a liar. He (Pinarayi Vijayan) is a liar…If not having links with the SDPI, PFI and Hamas is the qualification for being called communal, I am proud to say that nobody in BJP has any linkages with SDPI, PFI and Hamas.”
Kerala, he said, has a history of appeasement of radical elements by the Left and the Congress. “Hamas is allowed to preach hatred in Kerala. It is free speech for Vijayan. The government of Kerala will not do anything. But we are communal. The same CM did not hesitate to put a journalist behind bars. If the home minister (Vijayan holds the portfolio) is unable to function and protect the people of Kerala, he should find somebody else competent enough to be home minister and he can be into full-time politics in Delhi. We are not here to blame anyone. We are here as a responsible political organisation committed to making India safe for Indians,” Chandrasekhar said.
In response Vijayan hit back, saying that Chandrasekhar’s comments were an “absurdity”. “Is this the manner (in which) a minister in the country reacts on such an issue? He should be called not as poison, but as lethal poison. He tried to shatter Kerala’s harmony and bonhomie,” Vijayan said. “Doesn’t he have faith in the investigating agencies in the country? The probe is going very well and the central agencies are giving full support. The minister was reacting in such a manner without taking these central agencies into confidence. He cannot destroy Kerala’s harmony by his absurdity. Yesterday I said such a person is poisonous. Beyond that, I say he is a lethal poison,” the chief minister added.