Thiruvananthapuram: The Centre's decision to name the second campus of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology here after late RSS ideologue M S Golwalkar has triggered a controversy in Kerala with both the ruling LDF and opposition Congress questioning the BJP's motive behind the move.

LDF convener and CPI(M) state secretary A Vijayaraghavan and Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala flayed the Centre. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also joined them with a sharp attack on the RSS.

"The BJP is attempting to bring communal elements to the forefront. As part of this plan, they decided to name the new campus of the RGCB after Golwalkar. BJP aims to communalise everything," Vijayaraghavan told reporters here.

Tharoor, in a series of tweets, asked whether the Centre wanted to "memorialise a bigoted Hitler-admirer, who in a 1966 speech to VHP, asserted the supremacy of religion over science?” “As for RajivGandhi's contribution, he inspired scientific innovation and allocated funds for it.

Are there no BJP icons who've at least tried to do the same thing?," Tharoor tweeted. “What is MSG's contribution to science other than promoting the disease of communalism?,” he asked.

He also suggested the name of Dr Palpu, a renowned bacteriologist and social reformer, born in Thiruvananthapuram in 1863.

Tharoor said Palpu was an expert in serum therapy and tropical medicine from Cambridge and Director of the Vaccine Institute and Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health.

"This forward-looking scientist medical practitioner would be far more appropriate than an obscurantist ideologue of no scientific achievement and no discernible contribution to public health. It's a BJP insult to Thiruvananthapuram and should be resisted," Tharoor tweeted, tagging Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan.

Chennithala said naming the campus after Golwalkar was not acceptable and added that he had written to the Prime Minister, requesting that the decision be withdrawn.

"Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a great leader who laid the foundation for modern India and encouraged the progress made by the country in the field of science and technology. What was the share of Golwalkar in the field of science and technology in the country? The Centre should withdraw the move," Chennithala said in a statement.

Senior CPI leader and former minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran had on Friday expressed shock and also suggested the name of Dr Palpu for the institution, saying "he fought against casetiest abuse of the downtrodden while providing his services to the medical sector.

"There is no other person in the history of this country who has spread so much hatred. No one should be allowed to sow such poisonous seeds in the land where reformers like Sree Narayana Guru, Ayyankali and Chattambi Swami have flourished the ideas of renaissance," Ratnakaran posted on Facebook.

Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the second campus of RGCB, a major knowledge centre and hub for mid and high level innovation, would be named 'Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Disease in Cancer and Viral Infection.'

He made the announcement while addressing a curtain raiser session of the sixth edition of India International Science Festival (IISF) scheduled for December 22-25, held online and organised by RGCB.

The upcoming campus will be a unique knowledge centre and hub for mid and high level innovation, founded on deep and advanced level technical platforms, multi- disciplinary courses that will seed growth and innovation, he said in his online message, adding that it is envisaged to be developed in three phases.

(With inputs from PTI)