On December 30, CPI (M) MP John Brittas cracked an utter lie and resorted to fear-mongering among the Muslim community about the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) by claiming that it was responsible for the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya which Islamist call Babri Masjid.
While addressing a seminar organised by Kerala Nadavathul Mujahideen (KNM), Brittas said that their (KNM’s) engagement with RSS will not change the basic culture of RSS. He repeatedly asked the audience if they expected any change in RSS culture as a result of their engagement with them. When the audience did not give him an enthusiastic ‘no’ to what he wanted, he tried to tease them. He also soothed himself, saying that he did not expect any change in the RSS culture.
Brittas also took it as an offence to the fact that an Islamic socio-cultural organisation invited BJP leaders V Muraleedharan and Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai (former Kerala BJP President) to the event.
Criticising the event organisers, Brittas said, “You have to ask yourselves whether they (Sangh Parivar) will accommodate you the way you are considering them. You have to ask this on their face…You must ask them if they would reciprocate since you welcome them.”
Brittas is one of the trustworthy aides of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He is the MD of CPM-controlled Kairali TV channel since its very inception. Earlier, he was a Delhi-based reporter in Deshabhimani, a Malayalam newspaper. Pinarayi Vijayan abundantly depends on him during his official tours to overcome the ‘language barrier’.
Brittas pleaded with the Muslim community not to fall for BJP’s electoral strategy by claiming they had previously destroyed mosques. He also claimed that the BJP had targeted Babri Masjid in the past, and the party now continues to target the Shahi Idqah Masjid and Gyanvapi.
“I am a journalist who had the misfortune of witnessing the destruction of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, which was until then considered a standing example of Indian secularism. Those moments are so fresh in my mind,” Brittas dogged.
During his address, he asked the public, “As an ordinary reporter, I had then written that the Babri Masjid is destroyed. Do you know what many prominent Kerala newspapers said in the headline? They described it as a ‘disputed structure’. Whose dispute? Dispute between who?”
“What is the representation of Muslims in the judiciary? Is there any representation in the government? What is the representation in the Indian Parliament?” he further added.
Meanwhile, the BJP Kerala unit has filed a petition to Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar seeking action against John Brittas for a ‘polarising communities and for his highly divisive speech’ at the mujahideen conference.
The petition filed by BJP said that the CPM leader openly exhorted division among people from different communities and stoked hatred against the Union Government and judiciary through his polarising and provocative statements.
The complaint said that Brittas’s statements were intended to promote enmity between the Muslims and Hindus, disturb communal harmony, and breach public tranquillity on religious lines.
P Sudheer, Kerala BJP general secretary, also requested the Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice-President Dhankhar to issue appropriate orders reprimanding the seditious conduct of the member of Rajya Sabha and appropriate steps to prevent further provocative, divisive and communally polarising speeches by the members of Rajya Sabha outside Parliament.
