Goa governor reminds CM, opposition about past elections

KOZHIKODE: Goa governor P S Sreedharan Pillai criticized the ongoing debate over ADGP M R Ajith Kumar meeting RSS functionaries and said that such discussions were inimical to the very foundations of democracy.

He was speaking after presenting the maiden P P Mukundan award to Union minister of state Suresh Gopi on Friday. "Who are the chief minister and the opposition leader trying to deceive? Who was in-charge of the election committee of RSS fellow traveller K G Marar in the 1977 election at Uduma? Whom did they support. Also, when the demand arose for lifting the ban on RSS in 1977, those who had called upon people to vote in line with that are now saying not to touch them or see them," Pillai said tacitly referring to the Left support in the 1977 election.

Pillai said that likewise those who are behind the current controversy should also remember that in the Lok Sabha election in 1980 when O Rajagopal was the candidate in Kasaragod, IUML leader Cherkalam Abdullah was his election committee convener and UDF had supported him.

Gopi said that no one in Kerala is qualified to criticize Ajith Kumar for meeting RSS top brass. He said he feels disdain over the political discussion going on in Kerala for the past one week and said that when violence broke out in Panur, E K Nayanar and then BJP general secretary P P Mukundan had held talks for several days at the Kannur collectorate to bring about peace. It was an instance of two minds working together setting aside political differences.

He said all politicians should have space in democracy and added that political untouchability is a crime.

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