BJP gives ammo to CPM campaign

Thiruvananthapuram: BJP state president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai’s controversial speech could not have come at a better time for the CPM which was at pains to convince people about the Sangh Parivar conspiracy to unleash terror in the name of Sabarimala issue.

The CPM which had launched house to house campaign on Sunday, had received mixed response from people. Teams led by local committee and branch committee secretaries had visited families, distributed pamphlets alleging Sangh Parivar conspiracy to destroy the temple.

During the house visits, the CPM cadres faced hostile response from a section of people who felt that the government was showing undue haste in implementing SC verdict.  But majority of the people did not approve of the manner in which Sangh Parivar was trying to politicise the issue and unleash violence.

With the BJP president now himself exposing the party's intention and the political “agenda” on the Sabarimala issue, the CPM top leadership believes that it would be easier for the party leaders to drive their point home.  It is in this context that the CPM now plans to campaign extensively against BJP’s “strategy” to create trouble in Sabarimala by inciting devotees.

Coming as it is ahead of mandala-makaravilaku season, the CPM is relieved that it has got enough time to expose the BJP-Tantri-erstwhile Pandalam royal plan to sabotage the Supreme Court verdict.

The CPM leadership believes that the police and administrative action which had come under criticism from certain quarters, can now be justified in the wake of the revelations made by Pillai. The party feels that majority of the devotees want to have peaceful darshan at Sabarimala and there is widespread apprehension among devotees coming from outside the state ahead of mandala-makaravilakku.

The CPM wants to draw a clear distinction between Sangh Parivar activists and devotees to thwart attempts to create violence in the name of Supreme Court verdict.  The party has reiterated that it is with the devotees and not with the trouble makers.

Spoke to tantri as lawyer: Pillai

BJP state president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai, who has been caught on the wrong foot over his speech on the Sabarimala issue on Sunday, has defended it saying that he had spoken to the Sabarimala tantri as his lawyer. “I will support him in the contempt of court case,” he told reporters here on Monday.

At a closed-door BJP Yuva Morcha meeting held in Kozhikode on Sunday, Mr Pillai had said that the tantri had discussed with him shutting the sanctum sanctorum if any woman of 'barred age group' arrived for darshan.

He said that everyone had surrendered before the BJP's agenda. “Sabarimala is a golden opportunity. Settling the Sabarimala issue in a straight line is not possible. We put forward an agenda and everyone else surrendered to it, leaving only us and our enemies, the government and its parties,” he was heard saying in a video and audio put out by TV channels.

Mr Pillai, who rushed from Pathanamthitta, clarified that the ‘golden opportunity’ he had referred to was to motivate the youth leaders.

He lashed out at the media and the CPM saying,“there is a CPM faction in the media which twisted my speech.”

“I stand by what I said on Sunday. I had said that it was a golden chance to serve the public but the media twisted my statement,” he said.

He also alleged that it was a ploy of the LDF government to distract attention from Sabari-mala. "BJP supports the devotees unlike the Congress, which ditched them half- way, and the CPM, which is against the Sabarimala traditions,” he said.