The row over Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy being left out of a function to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi escalated on Monday with Rahul Gandhi accusing him of “insulting” people of the state while it triggered protests in Parliament.
Modi, who is on his first visit to Kerala, is scheduled to unveil the statue of former Chief Minister R Sankar in Kollam on Tuesday at the event organised by Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), a social outfit of the backward Hindu Ezhava community.
Members of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members clashed in the Lok Sabha over the issue with the former alleging that the Prime Minister’s constitutional position was being used for “political vendetta”, a charge rejected as “baseless” by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who said the Centre had nothing to do with it.
Seeking to douse the controversy, Vellapally Natesan, who is heading the SNDP, said it was he who was responsible for deletion of Chandy’s name from the function and not the BJP leadership, as was being alleged. The BJP and the SNDP recently forged an alliance in Kerala, where Assembly polls are due next year.
Gandhi alleged that the PM has “stopped our chief minister” from going to a function.
“The Chief Minister of Kerala represents the people of Kerala. The Chief Minister of Kerala is the voice of the people of Kerala and the Prime Minister had insulted that voice. This is simply not acceptable to us,” he said in Delhi.
Rejecting as “unfounded and baseless” the charge levelled by Congress against the PM, Singh told the Lok Sabha that the decision to withdraw the invite to Chandy was taken by SNDP due to its “internal row” and the government had nothing to do with it.
He said it was true that SNDP had first invited Chandy, which led to some “internal row” within it and the organisation then adopted a “unanimous resolution”, saying the Chief Minister should not come. “Who is invited and who is not is a decision for the SNDP to take and the government has nothing to do with it,” he said.
The Lok Sabha Speaker was forced to adjourn the House due to the uproar over the issue.
“It is an agonising issue which has seriously affected the emotions of the people of Kerala and the country. It is a serious breach of political morality... Due to the unfair political move by the ruling party at the Centre (BJP), he (Chandy) was dropped. The entire state is shocked and agitating. The PMO or the Prime Minister has a hand in this. Humiliating the Chief Minister is humiliation of Kerala. The constitutional position is being used for political vendetta. This is against cooperative federalism,” Congress member KC Venugopal (Cong) said raising the matter during the Zero Hour.
Temple allegation: Rahul a lying machine, says BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday termed as “fabricated” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s charge that he was denied entry to a temple in Assam by RSS workers, alleging that he had become a “lying machine” and was talking about such non-issues to disrupt Parliament. The party said also hit back at Gandhi after he blamed PM Narendra Modi for withdrawal of invitation to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy for an event, saying he was making “petty and childish” charges and that the decision was taken by the organisers. “Rahul Gandhi claims he was stopped by RSS from entering an Assam temple. Earlier somebody (Selja) claimed that she was stopped from entering a temple in Dwarka and she was exposed in Parliament. What Gandhi says is fabricated and a lie,” Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. He claimed Chandy had himself written a letter, stating he will not be able to attend the event.