Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Madhya Pradesh spokesperson on Thursday announced a bounty of Rs 1 crore on the head of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (picture above), blaming the Left leader of killing workers from the outfit and the associated Bharatiya Janata Party. Kundan Chandrawat said he was even ready to sell his property if he has to give out the reward.
Chandrawat made the remark during a RSS protest rally in Ujjain in the presence of MP Chintamani Malviya and MLA Mohan Yadav. “I have enough wealth to have the guts to make such an announcement. I have properties worth over Rs 1 crore. Whoever gets me Vijayan’s head, I will give away all my property to that person,” he said, according to Times Now. The RSS also demanded strict action against the perpetrators of the killings and the immediate dismissal of the Left-run Kerala government.
Chandrawat confirmed to Scroll.in that he had made the announcement at the meeting. “RSS workers are not afraid of taking extreme steps. I made the offer to protect the swayamsevaks in Kerala,” he said over phone from Ujjain.
Asked if he was afraid of facing legal actions for hate speech, he said: “I didn’t kill Pinarayi Vijayan. How can the police charge against me? I just made an offer,” he said.
He also said that he didn’t have any regrets for making the offer. “I am a proud to be an RSS worker. He added that more than 2,000 people attended the meeting and his remarks drew applause from the audience.
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) “strongly condemned” the RSS leader’s remarks. “By this the RSS has reconfirmed that it spearheads the politics of violence and terror as has been clear in Kerala in the recent months,” the party said in a statement. They also demanded immediate action against him for making the remarks. “The silence of the governments is an endorsement that emboldens the RSS to issue such obnoxious threats,” they said.
Meanwhile, the RSS distanced itself from Chandravat’s comments. “It was not the official position of the RSS. The Sangh doesn’t believe in violence,” said J Nandakumar, Sah-Prachar Pramukh of the RSS.
Chandrawat’s comments come in the backdrop of several cases of political violence involving Bharatiya Janata Party, RSS and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) workers. There have been at least nine political murders in Kerala since the Left Democratic Front government came to power in May 2016. Both the RSS and the CPI(M) have blamed each other for the bloodshed.
The latest of these political killings took place on February 12, when a BJP worker was hacked to death in Thrissur district. The BJP accused the CPI(M) of Nirmal’s murder. This came almost month after another BJP worker was killed outside his home in Kannur district. On January 18, 52-year-old Santosh was attacked by a group of unidentified men. Six CPI(M) workers were arrested in connection with the murder.
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