The Ernakulam Central Police on Tuesday registered a case against Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekar for allegedly causing communal disharmony and violating public order through social media posts.
The police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against him under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with an intent to cause riot) and 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC). The police have also included Section 120 (o) (causing nuisance and violation of public order through any means of communication) of the Kerala Police Act against Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
The FIR stated that Rajeev Chandrasekhar had tried to disrupt the communal harmony in the state by targeting a particular community for the blasts at Kalamassery through his videos and posts on social media.
Earlier on Sunday and Monday, a war of words took place between Union Minister Chandrasekhar and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in connection with the Kalamassery blasts.
Moments after the Kalamassery blasts, Chandrasekhar on social media platform X slammed the Kerala CM for doing ‘appeasement politics.’
Referring to the protest against the Israel-Hamas war that Vijayan participated in Delhi, Chandrashekhar said: “Sitting in Delhi and protesting against Israel, when in Kerala open calls by Terrorist Hamas for Jihad is causing attacks and bomb blasts on innocent Christians.”
“Brazen appeasement politics – shameless even by Cong/CPM/UPA/INDI alliance standards to invite Terrorist Hamas to spread hate & call for “Jihad” in Kerala,” he further stated his post.
He quoted Hilary Rodham Clinton: “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. You know, eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard.” The post also carried the hashtags #HamasTerrorists and #KochiTerrorAttacks.
Terming Chandrasekhar’s posts as a part of his communal stand, Chief Minister Vijayan on Sunday, without naming Chandrasekhar, sought to know the basis on which the Union Minister made such remarks against him and how a person holding a responsible position could come out with such statements while the investigation was going on.
“Those who’re poisonous will keep spitting poison…one of the Union Ministers made a statement that I am doing appeasement politics and protesting against Israel…he is a minister and he should give some minimum respect to the investigating agencies; the probe is underway…in such a serious incident, at such an early stage, they are making such statements targeting a few set of people,” Kerala CM said.
Hitting back at Vijayan, Chandrasekhar on Monday said: “Under CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Kerala has shown increasing tolerance towards radical elements and radicalization. Whether it is June 23rd Elathur-Kozhikode attempt to burn a train which would have caused, if he had succeeded, over 200-300 deaths and the characterization of that person as being mentally ill till it was revealed that he was an ISIS sympathizer, and that was a deliberate attempt at terrorism. There is a history of appeasement of radical elements by both the Congress and the Left in Kerala…”
BJP Kerala president K Surendran has condemned the Kerala Police’s action against Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. He said that the case was filed to help extremists.
He lamented that the police did not file a case against the organisers of the rally in Malappuram in which Hamas leader Khaled Mashal virtually addressed the gathering on Friday and against CPI-M state secretary MV Govindan, who termed Kalamassery bomb blasts as a ‘terrorist act.’
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the Left government in Kerala crossed all limits in the name of vote bank politics and is quick at booking nationalists and filing false cases.
Reacting to the news that the Kerala Police have filed a case against him “for trying to create religious rivalry through social media,” Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday said Rahul Gandhi and Pinarayi Vijayan, the two partners of the INDIA, have come together to file a case against him.
“Two of the biggest appeasers in Indian politics shamelessly appease toxic terrorist organizations like SDPI, PFI and Hamas, which have caused radicalization and cost many innocent lives and the lives of security forces from Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab and Kerala for decades. I have a case for exposing their pandering to Hamas,” said Chandrasekhar.
The convenor of KPCC Digital Media Cell Sarin P on Monday shot off a letter to the Kerala DGP, saying that the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology made “factually incorrect and politically motivated statements with the intention of promoting communal hatred and disharmony among different religions in Kerala.”