Kottayam: A day after a mentally challenged tribesman was lynched by a mob in an Attappadi village, the BJP went on the offensive to turn the table on Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front and the liberals critical of Hindutva extremism across the country.
Madhu, aged 35, was stripped, tied up and beaten by a group of people at Mukkali on Thursday afternoon. His tormentors then handed him over to the police, accusing him of stealing food from the shops in the area. He vomited in the police jeep and died on the way to a hospital.
The Kerala government has set up a magisterial-level inquiry into the incident and the state police have formed a special team to nab the accused. Two merchants have been arrested in connection with the case. The police suspect the involvement of at least 15 people.
BJP leader K Surendran, meanwhile, used the incident to target the CPM and the Congress. “The communists and the Congress workers would have already started crying for the resignation of (prime minister Narendra) Modi had this happened anywhere in north India,” he wrote on Facebook.
He also targeted writers critical of the BJP and the government it leads at the center. He said that K Satchidanandan and Ramanunni would have returned their awards.
Surendran’s ire was particularly targeted at tribal welfare minister A K Balan and M B Rajesh MP, who represented the Attappadi area in Parliament.
“M B Rajesh and gang would have sat in dharna before the Gandhi Statue in front of Parliament and ensured that the photo appeared in today’s newspapers (had the incident happened anywhere in north India),” he said.
Surendran said that the central government spent millions of rupees for the tribal people but the money was diverted by middlemen.
The BJP has called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Mannarkkad taluk on Saturday to protest the murder.
Read: Latest Kerala News | Mob killed my brother: Mammootty on lynching of Madhu