Centre seeks report on political violence in Kerala

Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta on Thursday said he had sought a report from Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar on complaints of political violence in the state.

Gupta told the media that he had forwarded some complaints from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress to Nayanar and asked for a report from him on the matter. But Nayanar claimed these charges were fabricated, he said.

Asked if he hoped to patch up differences between his party, the Communist Party of India, and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, both of which are part of the ruling Left Democratic Front coalition in Kerala, the minister, a former CPI general secretary, said there was no serious rift between the parties that called for his intervention.

"Differences of opinion between parties in a front is nothing new. It is because of these differences that they are able to keep their identity," he added.

The United Front government at the Centre itself was a coalition of 14 parties. But that did not mean that these parties were not able to get on together, he said.

Asked if he had received any report about the operation of fundamentalist organisations in north Kerala, he said the Centre would step in only when such organisations began instigating people to indulge in violence. No such report had come to his notice, he said.

UNI