Kerala CM, Opposition Leaders Slam Maharashtra Minister for Branding Kerala “Mini Pakistan”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 31: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has slammed the Maharashtra fisheries and ports minister Nitesh Rane for purportedly referring to the State as a “mini Pakistan” holding the presence of large Muslim voters responsible for the election of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and later his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad constituency in Kerala.
While Mr Rane’s remarks drew flaks both from the ruling and opposition fronts in the southern state, the chief minister in a tersely worded statement on Tuesday denounced Mr Rane’s statement as “extremely galling and inflammatory” and said his comments reflected the Sangh Parivar’s strategy of dividing people into communal lines in regions with scarce political influence.
“The derogatory remark by Maharashtra Fisheries and Ports Minister @NiteshNRane, labelling Kerala as ‘mini-Pakistan’, is deeply malicious & utterly condemnable. Such rhetoric reflects the hate campaigns orchestrated by the Sangh Parivar against Kerala, a bastion of secularism & communal harmony. We strongly denounce this vile attack on Kerala, & call upon all democratic & secular forces to unite against Sangh Parivar’s hateful propaganda,” Mr Vijayan said in a post on X.
The son of former Maharashtra Chief Minister and BJP leader Narayan Rane, 42-year-old Nitesh Rane handles the portfolios of fisheries and ports development in the Devendra Fadnavis government. Targeting Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at a public gathering in Pune, Mr Rane said the siblings were elected from Kerala’s Wayanad because the state was “mini Pakistan.”
“Kerala is mini Pakistan that is why Rahul Gandhi and his sister are elected from there. All terrorists vote for them. This is the truth, you can ask. They have become MPs after taking terrorists with them,” Mr Rane said.
In his hard-hitting statement, Mr Vijayan said the Sangh Parivar smothered and demonised people and regions where its divisive political ideology had no traction. Mr Vijayan pointed out that Mr Rane’s statement contradicted India’s secular Constitution, and that the latter had lost the moral right to continue in office.
Congress also deplored Mr Rane’s statement but sought to link the controversy with the recent statements of CPI(M) leaders about Rahul’s and Priyanka’s victories in Wayanad.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said the minister had hurt Kerala’s secular mindset. “People want to know whether the Prime Minister and Kerala Chief Minister have the same view. It is the CPI(M) stand that prompted the BJP to spit communal venom. The minister should quit, and he should be disqualified. The Congress will politically and legally fight against the statement which depicted people of Wayanad as terrorists,” he said.
The remarks drew a scathing response from the Opposition parties. Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said, “What else can one expect from Nitesh Rane? He has been elected to do this only. However, I want to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Devendra Fadnavis. The person (Rane) is a minister and has taken the oath of the Constitution to (maintain) the sovereignty and unity of India. Now, he is labelling one of the country’s states as Pakistan. He is calling the voters there ‘terrorists.’ Should he have the right to remain in the ministerial position?” he asked.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anand Dubey said, “BJP leaders are worried since Prime Minister Modi won only by a lakh votes, they are not able to digest Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s win by a margin of 4 lakh votes.” Clyde Crasto, spokesperson for the Sharad-Pawar-led NCP (SP), said, “Nitesh Rane always speaks like this, BJP will have to clear whether they agree with these statements. The BJP will have to answer to the people of Kerala and India. These statements can only come from people who are out of mind. It is like an insult.”
Amid the growing controversy, Mr Rane issued a clarification. “Kerala is very much part of India. However, the decreasing population of Hindus is something everyone should worry about. The religious conversion of Hindus into Muslims and Christians has become an everyday thing there.”
Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary Binoy Viswam said the Maharashtra government should oust Mr Rane from the Cabinet for “spewing communal venom.” He echoed Mr Vijayan’s sentiment that Mr Rane’s words ran against the Constitution’s secular and federal core.
Mr Viswam said Mr Rane’s words reflected Sangh Parivar’s “ideological pauperism and the chathur varna” system of stratifying society based on casteist hierarchy. The BJP’s ideology stemmed from the “much-reviled and rejected” Manusmriti, the fountainhead of the oppressive caste system, he said. Mr Viswam said the “Modi-Shah gang” would unlikely correct Mr Rane’s view. “Kerala is a synonym for secularism and progressive social outlooks,” he said, adding that the Supreme Court should take a suo motu case against Mr Rane.
In a social media post, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said Mr Rane had merely parrotted the Communist Party of India (Marxist) polit bureau member A. Vijayaraghavan’s statement that radical Islamist had crafted the Congress’ back-to-back victories in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency. Mr Satheesan said the BJP and the CPI(M) towed the same political line. He termed the alleged nexus “Communist Janata Party”.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran said the BJP and the CPI(M) worked together to undermine Kerala’s secular and progressive polity. In a statement, Mr Sudhakaran noted that the CPI(M) had brazenly endorsed Mr Vijayaraghavan’s statement that “fundamentalist and terrorist” forces had catalysed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and, earlier, Rahul Gandhi’s successive victories in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency.
After Priyanka’s win in byelections in the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, the CPI(M) in Kerala had alleged that a communal Muslim alliance was behind her and her brother’s victories. Two weeks ago, CPI(M) politburo member A Vijayaraghavan said in a party convention that without the support of the communal Muslim alliance, Rahul would not have reached Delhi (won the Lok Sabha seat). Referring to the victory of Priyanka in the recent Wayanad byelection, Vijayaraghavan said the worst extremist elements were in her precession.
The CPI(M) leader’s reference to Wayanad went in line with the change in the approach of the CPI(M) after the Lok Sabha elections, during which the party faced a backlash over its bid to woo minority votes.
In 2019, too, when Rahul won his first electoral battle in Wayanad, the BJP national leadership had invoked Pakistan. Before he filed nominations at the time, green flags of Congress ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) were seen flying alongside the Tricolour.
At the time, then BJP president Amit Shah had attacked the Congress: “When a procession is taken out, you cannot make out whether it is an India or a Pakistan procession.” In November this year, when Priyanka contested in Wayanad, CPI(M) raked up a controversy over Muslim voters in the constituency. Vijayan then said Priyanka was contesting with the support of the Jamaat-e-Islami, which is not in “favour of a democratic system.” The CM said the Jamaat-e-Islami stood for an “Islamic regime” and the “extremist section” was “trying to gain influence in the Indian Union Muslim League.”
Wayanad Lok Sabha seat has around 41 per cent Muslim voters, 45 per cent Hindu voters and 13 per cent Christian voters.
