T’PURAM/KOZHIKODE : An off-the-cuff remark by CPM state secretary M V Govindan on the eve of the Nilambur by-election has left the LDF camp embarrassed, forcing Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself to launch a fire-fighting mission.
The UDF, which was on the defensive over its tie-up with the Welfare Party - the political wing of the Jama’at-e-Islami - was quick to sense the opportunity Govindan opened up by his remarks on the CPM’s association with the RSS in opposing the Emergency in the 1970s. The UDF is relieved that the CPM-RSS ties took the spotlight on Wednesday, pushing its association with the Jama’at to the sidelines.
After his remarks on the RSS, in a Malayalam channel, kicked up a controversy, Govindan convened a press conference to accuse the media of “twisting” his statements. “History should be viewed in historical perspective. There is a concerted effort to create controversy over the statement I made about the Emergency 50 years ago,” he said.
Govindan asserted that the CPM has had no cooperation or understanding with the RSS till now. “This was the case in the past, as it will be in the future... The CPM and the Janata Party, which was formed by dissolving various socialist parties, had an electoral understanding to fight the Emergency. The Janata Party and the Jan Sangha were two separate entities,” he said.
In damage-control mode, Pinarayi Vijayan says CPM never appeased RSS
Sensing that things were getting out of hand, Pinarayi converted his press conference in Thiruvananthapuram into a salvage mission. Making his party’s position clear, he said the CPM has never had any sort of agreement with the RSS. “We have never appeased the RSS. However, we have seen certain individuals bowing to pictures of those revered by the RSS. We have also seen a former KPCC president boasting about providing protection to RSS shakhas,” he said.
Pinarayi said the CPM had never shied away from speaking its politics. “The RSS has brutally murdered 215 of our comrades over the years... Have you ever seen the Congress condemning any of these murders?”
It was the Congress that had associated with the RSS and the Jan Sangh at the national and state levels, he alleged. Quoting from the book ‘How Prime Ministers Decide’, written by senior journalist Neeraja Chowdhury, the CM alleged that Indira Gandhi had received RSS support in the 1980 Parliament election, and Rajiv Gandhi had held discussions with RSS leaders.
Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan termed Govindan’s statement “significant”. Before the formation of Janata Party, the CPM had associated with the Jan Sangh in 1975, and former general secretary P Sundarayya had resigned from his post protesting against the move. “Even now an understanding between the CPM and the BJP exists.
That is why BJP had, in the beginning, decided not to contest the Nilambur by-election,” he added. Independent candidate P V Anvar said a nexus exists between the RSS and the CPM and this has come out in the open. “I have been saying this for the past few months,” he said.
