THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has announced a financial assistance of Rs 30 lakh to the family of Ramnarayan Baghel, the migrant worker who was lynched to death by a mob in Palakkad. A sum of Rs 5 lakh each will be given to Ramnarayan’s mother and wife, while Rs 10 lakh each will be allotted to his children as fixed deposit.
The amount will be disbursed from the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday. Lashing out against the Sangh parivar for the incident, the chief minister said that the incident should be seen as a move to replicate the tried-and-tested mob-lynching occurrences from North India.
“We should take this as a responsibility to prove to them that Kerala will not be a ground for such practices... (Sangh parivar) even labelled the youngster a Bangladeshi refugee,” he said. Adding that the death of Ramnarayan Bhayar has shaken the conscience of Kerala, CM also said that some of the convicts have criminal backgrounds.
The incident took place on Monday, when a group of people lynched Ramnarayan from Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, after mistaking him for a thief. Following the incident, the CM stated that stringent action would be taken against the perpetrators. Meanwhile, the political dimension of the incident broke out when CPM leaders accused the RSS of being behind the assault.
Connecting this to other recent incidents, the chief minister also mentioned the attacks launched during the Christmas celebrations of other states.
Mentioning that such moves disgrace the festival, which gives light to the world, he said the Sangh is part of all these. “The same people who visited Christian homes with cakes last year are now launching these attacks,” he said. Pinarayi also mentioned the attack on the Christmas carol group in Palakkad, pressure from RSS-affiliated organisations against schools that organised Christmas celebrations, and the BMS move to sing RSS ganageetam during Christmas celebrations in postal offices.
“Senior BJP leaders even made insulting remarks against the carol teams that they generally drink alcohol and perform indecently,” he said.