Thiruvananthapuram: A case has been filed against BJP state president, P S Sreedharan Pillai for his comments denigrating Muslims during an election meeting. The case was registered under Section 153 and 153 A of the Indian Penal Code for “Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot” and “Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.” respectively.
The action was taken after the CPM leader, V S Sivankutty filed a complaint against Pillai’s remarks on the army's Balakot attack at a function organized to release the election manifesto of NDA candidate, Sobha Surendran. The opposition leader, Ramesh Chennithala had demanded the withdrawal of the statement and a public apology from Pillai following the incident.
When the issue flared up, BJP took the view that the LDF and UDF were wrongly interpreting the speech. Pillai insisted that he spoke about the terrorists and not Muslims, specifically. Congress and BJP were taking his speech out of context to inflame communal passions as those parties were apprehensive of losing minority votes. He added that he wasn't worried about the case but he was afraid to speak in public following the incident.
The BJP state chief’s speech went as follows: “Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury and Pinarayi Vijayan demanded to know the caste and religion of the terrorists killed in the air strike at Balakot in Pakistan as soon as the operation was over. There are certain signs for identifying a Muslim, but one may have to remove the clothes to see them.”
