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Nayanar warns Vajpayee govt not to meddle with Kerala

Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar ridiculed the state Bharatiya Janata Party unit's demand that a team from New Delhi should be send to study the activities of extremist organisations in the south Indian state.

He said the people would unitedly oppose any unconstitutional move by the Centre to "interfere and create problems in the state."

"Law and order is the subject of state government. No one will be allowed to trespass on it. Any move that is anti- democratic and against the federal structure of the Constitution can be defeated through the unity of people," he said in a statement in Thiruvananthapuram.

The chief minister said the central government should take a decision on the basis of the Constitution and not based on the views of the state BJP unit. He hoped the central government would show 'maturity and sagacity' in the matter.

Nayanar said the number of communal clashes in the state had declined in recent years. In 1993, 102 communal clashes occurred, but it had come down to 32 in 1997. The BJP was turning a blind eye to this reality and was trying to project some isolated incidents that had links outside the state, he said.

UNI

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