Kasaragod: The Congress is repeating its betrayal of secularism by celebrating the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, said CPM leader and Member of Parliament A A Rahim. "When Sangh Parivar is once again using Ram temple as a political weapon, the Congress is after soft communalism," said Rahim, the National President of CPM's youth wing Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).

He was speaking after inaugurating the DYFI's statewide protest against the BJP-led government's alleged neglect of Kerala. The youth organisation lined up around 20 lakh people to form an unbroken 650-km human chain from Kasaragod Railway Station to Raj Bhavan. The protest was aimed at raising issues of 'inconvenience caused to railway passengers, freeze in central appointments and the financial boycott on Kerala by the Union government'.

But Rahim, who was the first link of the human chain, had the Congress in his crosshairs during the inaugural speech.

To be sure, the CPM and the Congress are constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), the pan-India coalition against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Rahim said: "The next-door Karnataka government is going to celebrate Ram temple's consecration in all the temples of the state. It is happening not in RSS-ruled Karnataka but in Congress-ruled Karnataka."

Congress's Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar himself announced that Ayodhya temple is a "national property", said the CPM member of Rajya Sabha. Congress leader Kamal Nath sent silver bricks for the temple, he said. "Why is the Congress forgetting Babri Masjid?" he said.

Independent India saw two heinous crimes, Rahim said. "One on January 30, 1948, when Gandhi was assassinated. The second heinous crime happened at 12.15 pm on the banks of Sarayu on December 6, 1992, when the RSS demolished Babri Masjid," he said and added: "The silent witness in the two crimes was Ram".

When Gandhi fell to bullets, he made Ram the witness by uttering 'Hey Ram' as his last words, said Rahim. When RSS workers stood atop the demolished minarets waving saffron flags and tridents, they also chanted 'Jai Sri Ram', he said. "When Indian secularism is collapsing, the Congress is silent. It is not able to raise its voice against the RSS," he alleged.

When states that stand up against the RSS are attacked using central agencies, the Congress stands with the Union government, he alleged. "What is the intention of the Congress?"

Kerala is being denied its tax share, it is being financially boycotted, and it is being neglected by the Union government, he alleged.

"Do you know that the Union government said that it would give funds to hospitals in Kerala only if the buildings are painted saffron," Rahim said. It would release funds for the housing scheme only if their faces were painted on Life Mission houses. We never branded Life Mission houses," he said.

Protesting against this alleged discrimination, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his ministers will take out a protest march from Kerala House to Jantar Mantar in Delhi on February 8. "The Chief Minister called the Opposition Leader and the Deputy Opposition leader and appealed to them to join the protest. They rejected it. This is how the Congress is. They are betrayers," Rahim said.

The Congress is guilty of criminal breach of trust. History will recall the Congress as betrayers," he said.

He said Kerala gave leadership to the fight against communalism in India. "What is today's speciality? The accused in the murder of an RSS leader in Alappuzha were tried and convicted within months," he said.

Rahim was referring to a Mavelikara court convicting 15 persons of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political arm Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) for the murder of BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivas. He was hacked to death in front of his mother and wife at his house in Vellakinar in Alappuzha town on December 19, 2021.

Police suspect the murder was a retaliation to the murder of SDPI’s State Secretary K S Shan by suspected RSS workers at Mannancherry in Alappuzha the night before.

What happened in Alappuzha was an attempt by the Popular Front of India and the RSS to destroy the communal harmony in Kerala by unleashing violence. But the police and the justice system acted swiftly, he said.