KOZHIKODE: A day after he courted controversy by stating that minority communalism is the biggest threat to society, CPM stand-in secretary A Vijayaraghavan on Thursday did a U-turn saying communalism from the majority community was more dangerous.“The biggest threat is minority communalism. To counter it, don’t we need to stay together?” Vijayaraghavan had asked at the LDF’s ‘Vikasana Munnetta Yathra’ at Mukkam on Wednesday. After the statement triggered a controversy, the CPM secretary changed his tone.
“The communalism of a community, which has larger numbers, is more dangerous. Who has any doubts about it,” he told reporters, adding the media distorted the statement he had made at Mukkam. “We can’t equate majority communalism with minority communalism. Majority communalism is in power now with the support of big corporate houses and corporate media. At the same time, minority communalism is mobilising people, tapping the atrocities committed by the majority communalism,” he said at Balusserry here.
The damage was, however, already done with both the Congress and the BJP coming down on Vijayaraghavan’s statement. While Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said Vijayaraghavan was “speaking the RSS in the language”, BJP state president K Surendran said he was trying to fool the Hindu community. Surendran wondered if the CPM leader was forced to change his statement under threat from certain quarters.“CPM’s love for the Hindu community is a farce. It is the same CPM-led government which insulted Hindu believers in Sabarimala,” he said.