THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan’s snipe at RSS former Sarsanghchalak MS Golwalkar triggered angry reaction from Sangh Parivar leaders who dug up files and came out with reports and pictures allegedly showing Satheesan’s past camaraderie with Sangh Parivar.
In reply to a legal notice served by RSS asking him to withdraw a statement that former minister Saji Cherian had shared the view of Golwalkar while criticising the Constitution, Satheesan told reporters that he would dismiss the notice with the contempt it deserved. “I stand by what I had said. Cherian said the same things that Golwalkar had written about Constitution in ‘Bunch of Thoughts’.
A reading of ‘Vicharadhara’, Malayalam translation of Golwalkar’s book, will give anyone a fair idea of how the thoughts expressed by Cherian are the same as that of Golwalkar,” said Satheesan, who also read out portions in ‘Vicharadhara’ that mentioned about taking ideas from the constitutions of the US and Britain and from the charter of League of Nations. “He said our Constitution is a strange creation,” said Satheesan.
‘Satheesan thinks opposing RSS will get him more votes’
Speaking at a CPM event in Mallappally last Sunday, Saji Cherian said the Constitution was written by Indian members as dictated by foreigners. The speech had cost him his cabinet berth.Hitting back, BJP state president K Surendran said Satheesan was slamming RSS to ensure the support of religious fundamentalists. “The comparison of Cherian’s speech with Guruji Golwalkar was not at all factual. When RSS leadership initiated legal action, he says he will lie again. Sangh Parivar organisations have never humiliated the Constitution,” Surendran told reporters in Kochi.
The BJP state president also alleged that Satheesan had been a friend of Parivar. “In 2013, he shared dais with pracharaks in an event orgainsed by RSS in Thrissur. He had praised the work of Parivar then. The same leader now criticises K N A Khader for attending a Parivar event,” he said. Hindu Aikyavedi general secretary R V Babu posted a picture of Satheesan inaugurating a book release function organised by Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram in 2013, on his Facebook page. He also alleged that after the first electoral defeat in Paravoor, Satheesan met RSS leaders secretly and sought their support for the next election. “Satheesan supports Islamic terrorism now. Hence, he thinks opposing RSS will get him more votes,” said Babu.
BJP state vice-president Sadanandan Master recalled that Satheesan was the chief guest during the release of the late P Parameswaran’s book on Swami Vivekanandan and Kerala on March 24, 2013, in Thrissur. “I was the district secretary of Vichara Kendram then. RSS leaders J Nandakumar and Ka Bha Surendran were also on the dais,” Sadanandan wrote on his Facebook page.