Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday, December 31, responded to Maharashtra minister and BJP MLA Nitesh Rane calling the southern state a ‘mini-Pakistan’, saying it was ‘deeply malicious’.
Denouncing Rane, the Kerala CM said that his remarks were utterly condemnable and called out the minister’s rhetoric to be part of the “hate campaigns orchestrated by the Sangh Parivar against Kerala.”
Taking to X, CM Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that Kerala is 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,” he added in his statement.
The derogatory remarks came from Nitesh Rane while speaking at a public event where he said that Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi won the Lok Sabha seat of Wayanad owing to Kerala being a ‘mini-Pakistan’.
Nitesh Rane, the son of former Maharashtra chief minister and BJP MP Narayan Rane, faced massive outrage over his statement, forcing him to clarify.
“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,” he later said.
Kerala’s ruling, Oppn parties denounce Nitesh Rane
Nitesh Rane’s statement was denounced by both the ruling and opposition leaders in Kerala. Former leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala demanded the BJP MLA’s resignation and vowed that he must be “immediately thrown out of the Fadnavis ministry in Maharashtra.”
Nitesh Rane holds the fisheries and ports portfolio in the newly formed Maharashtra government.
Kerala’s current Opposition leader and Congress leader VD Satheesan said that the Sangh Parivar is trying to create communal unrest in Kerala, which has been the “number one secular state in India.”
CPI(M) leaders stir controversy
Meanwhile, CPI(M) polit bureau leader A Vijayaraghavan was at the centre of a political storm in Kerala last week with his remarks on similar lines to Nitesh Rane’s latest comments. The senior leader had said that the landslide victories of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Wayanad Lok Sabha Assembly seat “owed to votes from communal forces and terrorists.”
His remarks drew strong criticisms from the secular communities which observed a recent stance from Kerala’s ruling parties bypassing its traditional secular lines of political thought and embracing the approach of a soft Hindutva.
Earlier in the month, another CPI(M) leader P Mohanan alleged that a physical exercise community, ‘MEC-7’ is suspected to have links with the banned organisations including the Popular Front of India (PFI).
