Kozhikode, Sept 10: The BJP will today launch a 12-day relay fast here as part of its agitation to press for a CBI probe into the May 2 Marad violence that claimed nine lives. BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai would start the fast on the occasion of Sree Narayana Guru Jayanti, party's district president Chettoor Balakrishnan told reporters yesterday.
BJP all India leaders Padmanabha Acharya and K Raman Pillai and state leaders C K Padmanabhan, P P Mukundan and P K Krishnadas would be among those addressing the protest gathering on the subsequent days, he said. The party was would intensify the agitation if the government failed to meet the demand.
Charging the Antony government with "surrendering" to the wishes of a section of the Muslim League, the second major partner in the ruling UDF, Balakrishnan claimed that almost the entire Hindu community had expressed support for a CBI enquiry to "trace the root cause" of the incident. "The BJP has exercised maximum restraint on the matter so far by only expressing support to the cause of Araya Samajam which represents the Hindu community at Marad and other Hindu organisations," he said, adding the party had now decided to take the agitation path only after the government chose to remain "silent" for so long. Bureau Report