Swamy wants Art 247 to be invoked to end clashes in Kannur

Kochi: Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy today accused the CPI(M) of unleashing violence against the RSS cadres in Kerala's Kannur district and urged the Centre to invoke Article 247 of the Constitution to put an end to clashes there.

Addressing a meeting organised by the intellectual cell of the BJP's Kerala unit here, Swamy said if the police and district authorities in Kannur are not doing their duty "then we have to think of some constitutional measures."

He said article 247 empowers Parliament to appoint magistrates in districts and he will be the seniormost magistrate in the state who can pass any order or issue any warrant.

"So this is the one thing we can do particularly in Kannur district...Appoint a magistrate who is under the Central government through an Act in parliament," Swamy said at the meeting also attended by party MP Sakshi Maharaj.

Swamy slammed CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who has stoked a controversy alleging that women belonging to minority communities were subjected to atrocities by army personnel in states where the AFSPA was implemented.

"We can also send Army under AFSPA to police the Kannur district," Swamy said.

Balakrishnan had made the statement against the background of the BJP and the RSS' demand for imposing the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Kannur after an RSS worker was hacked to death here, allegedly by the ruling CPI(M) activists earlier this month.

Kannur in north Kerala has witnessed a series of political murders and violence between CPI(M) and RSS, BJP workers after the LDF government came to power last year.