Union ministers should follow federal principles: Vijayan on Javadekar’s remarks against Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: A day after slamming RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for accusing the Kerala government of supporting jihadi and anti-national forces, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Monday picked out union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar for comparing Marxist leaders in Kerala with Maoists.

The M in CPI-M now stands for "Maoists" and not "Marxists", Javadekar had claimed, accusing the party of using violence as a tool to suppress the saffron party.

"Through our yatra, we will seek answers (to the political killings by CPI-M)...and we will put them (CPI-M) in the dock and we will fight them out through democratic means," he said in New Delhi.

Vijayan told reporters in New Delhi that union ministers should follow federal principles. "Union ministers coming out with such statements defying federal principles is inappropriate," he said.

While making statements about states, union ministers should follow federal principles, he said, adding that such remarks were being made as the RSS agenda was not getting implemented in the southern state.

Vijayan later said in a Facebook post that BJP ministers and RSS leaders should stop maligning Kerala. "The statement of the union minister that CPI(M) workers in Kerala were launching attacks like Maoists is only a feeble ploy to keep under wraps the violence being unleashed by their workers," he said.

He pointed out that the BJP yatra starts from Payyannur, were a worker of DYFI (youth wing of CPI-M) was killed in July 11 last year.

"Shah and other BJP leaders should ask their followers why the DYFI worker was killed," he said. CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also lashed out at Javadekar, saying he should first study what Marxism is.

He also said the Left Democratic Front in Kerala is a progressive movement which had always fought against all types of terror.