BJP Poster “Lunch With SC/ST Leaders” sparks Controversy in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: A poster brought out by Kerala BJP in connection with its statewide Padayatra which mentioned state president K Surendran’s “lunch with SC/ST leaders”, has triggered a major controversy with the party being accused of having a casteist mindset.

The poster had “lunch with SC/ST leaders” as one of the programmes of Surendran who is leading the padayatra, during the Kozhikode leg of the event. The poster invited huge criticism in social media and from the opposition parties who slammed the BJP for insulting the Dalits and Adivasis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the valedictory function of the padayatra in Thiruvananthapuram on February 27.

The CPM alleged that the poster portrayed the "savarna" mindset of the BJP. “The BJP leaders seem to be living with a 100-year-old mindset even today,” said K Somaprasad of CPM.

Congress MP K Muraleedharan slammed the BJP for bringing out such an insulting poster.

Meanwhile, BJP state president K Surendran refuted the allegations saying that there was nothing wrong in having lunch with the SC/ST leaders. “I belong to a backward community and I have lunch with people from the marginalised sections. CPM leaders have food with the quarry mafia, liquor mafia, and money bags. There is a deliberate attempt to create a controversy. Earlier SC/ST leaders used to have strong links with the CPM. Now many prominent SC /ST leaders are associating with the BJP and that’s why our critics are cooking up false stories. They will be surprised to find prominent Dalit leaders in the BJP list of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a major embarrassment, the campaign song of the padayatra mentioned the central government as a corrupt dispensation. “The central government is corrupt. Rally to defeat the central government, which is known for its corruption," the verses of the song read.

The song criticising the Centre was released through the YouTube channel BJP Kerala, which also gives live coverage of the padayatra.

The BJP state leadership has swung into action and ordered a probe into the incident. The IT cell head will look into the circumstances that led to the publication of such a song and also hold the people behind it accountable.