BJP president Amit Shah and Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan (to Shah’s right) during the last stretch of the party’s Jan Raksha Yatra in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. (Source: PTI photo) BJP president Amit Shah and Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan (to Shah’s right) during the last stretch of the party’s Jan Raksha Yatra in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. (Source: PTI photo)

Fourteen days after he flagged off the Jan Raksha Yatra from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s home district Kannur, in north Kerala, BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday concluded the protest march against “Communist violence” in the state capital and asked Vijayan whether his government got people’s mandate in the elections last year to kill RSS and BJP workers.

Addressing the valedictory function of the yatra on Tuesday evening, Shah said 13 BJP and RSS workers have been killed since the CPI(M)-led LDF won the Assembly elections last summer. Most of them, he said, were killed in the Chief Minister’s home district.

“I am asking Vijayan whether he will take moral responsibility for these killings,” Shah said.

Tens of workers and cadres from both the BJP-Sangh and the CPI(M) have been killed in attacks and counter-attacks by both sides over the years in Kerala. Much of this violence has been reported from Kannur district. Led by BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan, the yatra covered 11 districts over a fortnight to protest against “Communist and jehadi terror”.

Shah, who had left for Delhi the day after flagging off the march and returned for the concluding leg on Tuesday, said, “The CPI(M) has adopted murderous politics as its style. Communist parties elsewhere perished due to corruption and dynasty rule. But in Kerala, the CPI(M) is going to collapse due to its violent politics.”

Ruing the fact that a Jan Raksha Yatra has to be taken out for the right to live even 70 years after Independence, Shah said, “If the CPI(M) thinks it can eliminate the BJP through violence, I would tell them that they can indulge in more violence, but it would not be possible to check the BJP.’’

Stating that the BJP is not new to political violence unleashed by the CPI(M), Shah said 30 BJP/RSS workers had been killed in violence during the 1996-2001 LDF rule, and 28 activists from his party and the Sangh were killed during the 2006-2011 LDF government.

Referring to Vijayan’s statement that the BJP undertook the yatra to divert attention from the CPI(M)-led government’s development initiatives in Kerala, Shah said the BJP is ready to debate and take on the CPI(M) on issues such as development, eradication of poverty and ideological matters.

He asked, “Will you (Vijayan) explain why 13 BJP/RSS workers were killed after (your) government came to power. Do you have the courage to explain?” Shah claimed that the march has left Vijayan nervous, making his government go slow on action proposed to be taken against Congress leaders allegedly involved in the solar scandal.

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