On Friday (December 30), Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader John Brittas resorted to fear-mongering among the Muslim community about the BJP by claiming that the party was responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
He made the contentious remarks during a conference of the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen in Kozhikode. Brittas, a Rajya Sabha MP, took offence to the fact that the Islamic socio-cultural organisation invited BJP leader V. Muraleedharan and Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai (ex-Kerala BJP President) to the event.
The Communist leader, therefore, alleged that BJP was trying to create a false sense of communal harmony and brotherhood in the State to gain votes in the election. He pleaded with the Muslim community to not fall for BJP’s supposed electoral strategy by claiming that they destroyed mosques in the past.
In a bid to create mass hysteria among the Muslim community in Kerala, he claimed that the BJP has targeted Babri Masjid in the past and now continues to target Gyanvapi mosque and the Shahi Idqah Masjid.
“I am a journalist who had the misfortune of witnessing the destruction of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, which was until then considered a standing example of Indian secularism. Those moments are so fresh in my mind,” he continued.
“An ordinary reporter, I had then written that the Babri Masjid is destroyed. Do you know what many of the prominent newspapers in Kerala said in the headline? They described it as a ‘disputed structure’. Whose dispute? Dispute between who?” John Brittas had asked during his address.
The CPI(M) leader then claimed that the BJP had deliberately deprived the Muslim community of electoral representation in the Parliament. “Does a people that constitute 20 per cent of the overall population face this kind of emptiness in the power structure anywhere in the world? The reality is that this kind of emptiness is not felt even in war-torn countries,” he claimed.
“What is the representation of Muslims in the Indian Parliament? Is there any representation in the Indian government? What is the representation in the judiciary?” John Brittas further added.
He also slammed the organisers of the event. The CPI(M) leader said, “You have to ask yourselves whether they (Sangh Parivar) will accommodate you the way you are considering them. You have to ask this on their face…You must ask them if they would reciprocate since you are welcoming them.”
