Thiruvananthapuram: CPI-M Kerala state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said the Communist parties had never taken `anti-religion` stand, but only opposed intervention of religion in politics.
Addressing a seminar on religious extremism in connection with the state conference of the women`s wing All India Democratic Women`s Association (AIDWA), he said it was
Communists who reacted strongly when Christians were attacked in different parts of the country by Sangh Parivar forces.
"In our society there are believers as well as non-believers. Communists parties always desired co-operation of both these sections," he said.
Stating that both majority communalism and minority communalism were dangerous, he said these trends were mutually complementary. Vijayan`s clarification assumes significance in the wake of party`s former MPs K S Manoj and A P Abdullakutty leaving
the party and joining Congress raising the issue of faith.
Manoj, who won the Alappuzha seat on a CPI-M ticket in 2004, recently quit the party and joined the Congress holding that it was difficult for him to accept the norms prescribed by the CPI-M as part of its `rectification process,` which he saw as coming in the way of professing faith.
PTI
