Teenager Immanuel Milan Joseph says on his grandfather, MM Lawrence, is the only Marxist in the family
Kerala BJP president Advocate PS Sreedharan Pillai and thousands of party workers and devotees staged a hunger strike in front of the offices of the DG of Police in Thiruvananthapuram against the brutal crackdown on Sabarimala devotees, including women and children.
Speaking on the occasion, Pillai stated that the police action, under Pinarayi Vijayan, is worse than that of the Emergency days. The police torture the devotees, including women, for participating in peaceful prayer marches. The total number of arrests has crossed 3500 and serious charges have been imposed on them. The yatra participants were brutally lathi-charged. “BJP is with the devotees; no compromise on this,” he added.
Pillai ridiculed the CPI(M) and LDF leaders for blaming the agitation was for achieving upper caste hegemony. He said when he started his Long March from Pandalam couple of weeks before he was accompanied by the SNDP vice-president Thushar Vellappalli. Leaders of various community organisations belonging to Hindu religion graced the March at different points. KP Neelakantan Master, president of Kerala Pulaya Mahasabha, the powerful Dalit organization in Kerala, was one among them.
Regarding his party president Amit Shah’s reference to the Supreme Court verdict, Pillai referred to the dissent note of Justice HR Khanna against the majority verdict upholding the arrest and incarceration of innocent people and opposition leaders during the Emergency. Even though his opinion was contrary to the majority one, he was congratulated by the Washington Post for his boldness and commitment to democracy. He took that risky step when he was supposed to be promoted as the Chief Justice of India after four months. The people of India still respects that dissent note, not the majority verdict of the judges which was in the wake of the statement of Niran De, the Attorney General of India of those days, before the court that government had the right to arrest anyone during the Emergency. Amit Shah’s statement should be viewed against this backdrop.
What caught the imagination of the public and mediapersons was the presence of Immanuel Milan Joseph, a plus 1 student. He is the grandson of MM Lawrence, prominent CPI(M) leader. Lawrence, 88, was CPM Ernakulam district secretary for long time, one-time MP, former central committee member and former state general secretary of CITU. Despite age and poor health, he is still an active state committee member of the party. Lawrence’s daughter dropped her son Milan Joseph at the venue of the BJP’s hunger strike. Milan told the media that himself and his parents are against the SC verdict on young women’s Sabarimala temple entry. He believes, traditions should be maintained intact. He came to participate in the BJP programme to express his solidarity with the campaign against the brutal police action against the peaceful protests. Asked about the possible response of his grandfather, he said, he (Lawrence) joined a party of his choice. Similarly, he chose to participate in the BJP programme.
Lawrence told the media that he does not approve of his grandson’s action.
Senior BJP leaders inaugurated the protest marches to the offices of DG of Police in all districts. Thousands of party workers participated in the marches. Several thousands of women actively took part.
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