Nationalism faces challenges in the country: CM

Thiruvananthapuram: Expressing concern that nationalism in the country was facing challenges, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Thursday said efforts to create division in the society should be checked and defeated.

In his Republic Day message posted in Facebook, he said the effort to divide the people and make them fight each other by differentiating ‘as we and them’ has to be checked and defeated, but did not name anyone.

The move to bring the people who follow different customs, different religious belief and different languages into one single culture was a serious challenge to nationalism, he pointed out.

“It has to be checked and defeated,” the CM said.

“Our nationalism is very broad. Diversity is the hallmark of it. But the challenges it faces are not small,” he said.

Steps also should be taken to bring the marginalised section in the society to the mainstream and also participate them in the developments of the country, Vijayan said.

Government should make initiatives to bring Dalits, women, tribals into the mainstream of the nation.

“But, we should realise that the administration has failed to ensure safety of Dalit, women and children in many places,” he said.

The Kerala CM said the country had not yet succeed in providing full protection to the life and property of its citizens.

Apparently referring to suicides of farmers, he said if one omit the number of deaths due to violence and other criminal activities, the number of deaths of people due to the steps of administration was on the increase.

“Number of farmers committed suicide after 2000 was not one or two. This was due to the wrong policies adopted by governments,” he said, adding “People lost life due to the note ban also.”