Not PM, Chandy should apologise: Shah

The BJP chief said there are no starvation deaths in Gujarat.

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday demanded an apology from Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy for the continuing deaths of children in the state’s tribal areas due to poverty and starvation.

"Forget the comparison. I am telling you for the deaths of two children yesterday...chief minister should apologise. Children are dying. Isn’t this an issue in Kerala?” BJP president Amit Shah said when asked about Chandy demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his Somalia-Kerala remark.

"The issue is not what someone has said. The issue is about starvation deaths and condition of tribal children in the state,” Shah told reporters at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram.

The BJP supremo was pointing at the two deaths of new born children at a tribal colony in Waynad district on Friday.

Replying to another query, he said there was no starvation deaths of children in Gujarat.

"Don’t make wrong statements. If you have data, show me,” he said.

An English magazine in 2013 had published a report about starvation deaths in Kerala.

The ‘insensitive’ chief minister had given a reply stating that ‘people are dying as they are not eating properly’, Shah claimed.

The magazine had quoted Culture Affairs Minister K C Joseph as saying that the deaths were due to alcohol consumption among tribal families.

The BJP leader urged journalists to visit Attapady, a tribal settlement in Palakkad district, where several instances of infant deaths due to malnutrition have been reported and tell the truth.

“If there are no deaths, print it. But if children have died of starvation, then the chief minister should explain why children are dying. It is very easy to create controversy with figures. Please go and visit the place,” he said, adding, starvation deaths cannot be hidden by using mere datas.

“Gareebon ki bhookh, bhookh hoti hai, mritiyu, mritiyu hoti hai. Aakando se ye chipaya nahi jata (starvation of the poor is starvation and deaths are deaths. It cannot be hidden under figures),” he said, adding Chandy government has the responsibility to address the issue.

The government of India is sending food-grains to the state. “Where has it gone? Why has it not reached the tribal children?” the BJP chief asked.

On Communist Party of India-Marxist’s allegation that there was a BJP-Congress understanding in some constituencies, Shah said there was no such nexus.

“But between the Communists and the Congress there was a tie-up in the whole of West Bengal,” he said.

Shah also wanted to know if the CPI-M will anoint 93-year-old V S Achutanandan as the chief minister instead of Pinarayi Vijayan if the Left Democratic Front was voted to power in the May 16 polls.

He asked if the two Fronts fail to get absolute majority, who will they support?

The Congress and Communists should make it clear if they will support each other in the event of both the Fronts not getting majority, he said.

“We will not support Congress or Communists in the event of a hung assembly. We are fighting to give a good government,” he added.