Hamas leader's speech at Kerala event will be probed: CM Pinarayi Vijayan

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said the alleged virtual address by a Hamas leader at an Islamist group's event in the state recently would be examined by police, and if something wrong has happened, appropriate action would be taken.

The CM alleged that the BJP was aiming at implicating people in false cases for merely expressing support for Palestine, and asserted that it would not be permitted in Kerala.

He pointed out that the state and the country have always supported Palestine, and it is only now that the stance has changed at the Centre.

Vijayan was responding to a query inviting his attention to remarks by BJP chief J P Nadda and Union Minister of State for Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar that neither the Left government nor the police intervened to prevent the Hamas leader's address.

The CM said the address appears to have been a recorded one, and what was said in it has to be examined.

"The person referred to as a Palestinian warrior spoke at an event organised by the Solidarity Youth Movement, the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. We need to see what he said.

"It appears that the speech was a recorded one. We need to understand that issue properly," he said, speaking to reporters at Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) here.

He further said that when Jamaat-e-Islami or any other organisation approaches the police for permission to hold an event, it is not denied. "That is what happened in the instant case," he said, adding, "If something is wrong in that, the police will examine it, and action will be taken." At the same time, he alleged that Chandrasekhar and his friends "are trying to find ways to lodge cases against those who are showing support for Palestine".

"They are trying to implicate them (Palestine supporters) in cases. That will not happen in Kerala," the CM said.

Referring to Hamas leader Khaled Mashal's virtual participation in a protest programme organised by an Islamist group in the state recently against Israel's war with the militant outfit, Nadda alleged that he spoke openly about his organisation and that the Left government was a "silent spectator".

"What does it mean? You are bringing a bad name to the land of 'God's Own Country' Kerala", Nadda said, while addressing workers of the BJP-led NDA who laid siege to three of the four gates of the Kerala Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram in protest against the alleged misrule of the Left government in the state.

Chandrasekhar, at a press conference here, said the Hamas chief was given an opportunity, with no intervention by the Kerala government or police, to address a large gathering of youth and incite them with radicalism."