Kerala chief-minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the BJP, which rules at the Centre, doesn’t want India’s secular structure to remain intact for a long time.

Vijayan, who heads the CPI-M Govt. in Kerala, was addressing a huge public meeting at Kolachal in Kanniyakumari District bordering Kerala as a ‘special guest’ at the District-level conference of the CPI-M in Tamil Nadu. The Conference began last Thursday and had invited Vijayan as a special guest to address a public meeting.

“Tamil Nadu has been at the forefront of many positive changes which had taken place in the country; in particular, Tamil Nadu and Periyar’s struggle against casteism and the landlords is quite a significant milestone in the country’s history. Ruling BJP at the Centre doesn’t have a proper vision of what people’s welfare is and how issues relating to it are to be addressed.

“It doesn’t want India to remain a secular country and has been encouraging communal clashes. Journalists including Gauri Lankesh, who had voiced their opinion against the BJP’s ‘Hindutva’ politicis, have been murdered with no clue about their murderers.  This shows the intolerance of the BJP.  Congress ruled at the Centre for a decade from 2004 to 2014 and people opted for BJP as they were fed up with Congress’ anti-people policies.

“However, the BJP is ironically following the same style of functioning as that of the Congress. Even BMS, a Trade Union affiliated to the BJP, is opposed to last week’s Union Budget,” he said and urged the Centre to allocate more funds to Tamil Nadu to address the rehabilitation needs of fishermen affected by last year’s ‘Cyclone Ockhi’.