Thiruvananthapuram: A delegation of Congress-led UDF opposition leaders Tuesday appealed to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to convene an all-party meeting to work out a strategy to end political violence in Kannur, where two CPI-M and BJP workers were killed earlier this month.
The front leaders, including opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty and Kerala Congress (J) leader Anoop Jacob, called on Vijayan at his office in the Assembly and handed over a memorandum in this regard.
Besides the demand for all-party meeting in Kannur, the memorandum also requested the Chief Minister to convey to the Centre the state's protest against its reported move to implement the Uniform Civil Code.
The leaders later told reporters that the Chief Minister should convene an all-party meeting to find a political solution to end the political violence in Kannur and to resolve the apprehensions of people.
"Tension created due to frequent clashes between both parties (CPI-M and BJP) has badly affected the peaceful atmosphere in Kannur," Chennithala said, adding, when such incidents happened earlier, the previous UDF government had taken necessary steps to end the clashes.
On Uniform Civil Code issue, he said all Muslim outfits in the state were against the move. "When changes are proposed in personal laws of any religion, it should be done with their consent. This was a policy followed since the time of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru," he said.
The present move by the BJP-led NDA government was with an eye on the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, he alleged.
Chennithala claimed the state government also shared same views on the matter.
IUML leader Kunhalikutty said efforts should be made to see that youths were not attracted to terrorism and the government should examine circumstances that leads them to extreme ideologies.
"The opposition will give its full support in efforts of the government in this direction," he said.
However, he added that action should be taken only after verifying that innocent people were not being framed in such cases. In this regard, the leader also said it was not proper to register an FIR against 'Peace International school' in Kochi on "syllabus issue'.
The school had recently courted controversy for allegedly teaching "objectionable content". Steps should have been taken to change the syllabus, he said.