THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former principal of St Stephen’s College Valson Thampu has called upon Kerala society to respond to the assault against social activist Swami Agnivesh in Jharkhand. He was speaking at a programme organised by the MVR Foundation at Trivandrum Press Club here on Thursday.
According to Thampu, “Swami Agnivesh is the Sree Narayana Guru of north India. Being a spiritual leader, it was Sree Narayana Guru who had intervened in Kerala society to remove social discrepancies, and in the same manner Swami Agnivesh is intervening in the social life of north India against injustice and bonded labour.”
“The public staging of mindless violence deserves to be universally condemned. More than the the physical assault, it was the nauseating verbal attack carried out by Jharkhand minister and BJP leader C P Singh, who had called Swami Agnivesh as a fraud and roaming around with foreign funds that had mattered more,” he said.
“The minister’s statement that Swami Agnivesh had come to Jharkhand without prior intimation is a lie as he had an appointment with Governor Draupadi Murmu,” he said.
“Swami Agnivesh is a honest man who had worked for the downtrodden and underprivileged for several years and had won the Right Livelihood Award, which is considered as alternative to the Nobel Prize,” he said, adding that Swami Agnivesh has been working for Adivasis and had helped more than 2 lakh people escape bonded labour.
MVR Foundation chairman and CMP state secretary C P John presided over the meeting and said Swami Agnivesh went on a padayatra through Gujarat when the state was burning following communal clashes.
The CMP leader also called upon Kerala society to be on the guard against such attacks.
Congress leaders condemn attack
T’Puram: The attack on social rights activist Swami Agnivesh has brought out the Fascist face of Sangh Parivar forces, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has said. Once again, the Sangh Parivar has made it clear they will not tolerate anyone speaking against them. The Sangh Parivar’s move to silence opposing voices through violence will not find takers here, Chennithala said in a statement here. “When unable to have ideological dialogues, they are resorting to violence.
It is noticeable that Swami Agnivesh was attacked on the day when the Apex Court raised concerns on mob killings,” Chennithala said. Former KPCC president V M Sudheeran also condemned the attack. The Sangh Parivar has challenged the freedom of expression and right to mobility as ensued by the Indian Constitution, said Sudheeran. This attack is an insult to Indian democracy, he said and called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah to apologise.