NEW DELHI: Keralam BJP president and former Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar on Sunday said chief minister VD Satheesan should refrain from encouraging “Jinnah worship”, accusing him of indulging in “selective secularism. “His remarks came in response to a social media post by Satheesan after a YouTuber was booked for allegedly making communal remarks in a video. The vlogger claimed that a cafe in Fort Kochi displayed a statue of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and served beef despite being named after the holy city of Kashi (Varanasi) in Uttar Pradesh.The video, shared on Instagram, triggered widespread criticism, with Satheesan and leader of opposition and former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemning the alleged communal remarks. Fort Kochi police registered a case against Amrit Singh Darren, a YouTuber from a northern Indian state, under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) over the video.“Do not encourage anti-India, anti-Hindu insults/discourse/actions/sentiment like Jinnah worship. In that, you will have our support. But selective secularism and selective talk of communal harmony will make you like every other fake politician before you. And we will resist it. Fully. Everytime,” Chandrashekhar wrote in the post.
While agreeing with the sentiment expressed by Satheesan, Chandrashekhar questioned the presence of Jinnah’s statue, the alleged justification of violence by proscribed terrorist organisations such as Hamas, and the Congress and CPI(M)’s political alliances with Jamaat-e-Islami, which he accused of being “anti-secular” and “anti-constitutional.”In his post, Chandrashekhar asserted that “Keralam belongs to all Malayalees,” who alone had the right to decide the state’s present and future, including its food, culture and celebrations.Citing Articles 19 and 19(2) of the Constitution, the former Union minister maintained that the right to freedom of speech and expression, along with the restrictions governing it, applied equally to all Indians.He called on the chief minister to show equal sensitivity and respect towards Hindus, Christians and Muslims, while cautioning against what he described as anti-India and anti-Hindu insults and discourse.(With PTI inputs)