“If the RSS starts killing, there would not be a tribe of writers”
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The state president of the Kerala Hindu Aikya Vedi, a platform of various RSS affiliates, KP Sasikala has advised secular writers from her state to perform mrityunjaya homam (ritual to avoid untimely death) in order to stay alive and avoid meeting the fate of late Gauri Lankesh.
Addressing a Vedi event in Ernakulam on September 8, the fire-spewing Sasikala boasted that the RSS had no need to kill its opponents since it grows in the very process of fighting them politically, She proceeded to allege that Gauri’s killing was to the political advantage of the Congress government in Karnataka where elections are due later this year.
“Such a murder was necessary for the Congress in Karnataka, which is in a weak position. So, I want to tell the secular writers that if they want a long life, they should go and conduct mrityunjaya homam as none can predict what will happen. Otherwise, you would also become victims like Gauri.’’
The Indian Express has quoted Sasikala as saying, “What all things have been artificially created to oppose Hindutva. The Sangh Parivar should be opposed. Finally, another one has fallen. What is her name, Gauri. Gauri Lankesh….. Now they all say she was killed by the RSS. The accused hasn’t been so far nabbed. The Congress (government in Karnataka) has to nab the culprit. The reason stated is that she used to oppose the RSS.”
She continued: “… Only those writers to oppose the RSS would be recognised as writers. Can you give names of writers who do not oppose the RSS? Is there anyone who does not write against the RSS? Only those who write against the RSS would get money, awards and recognition. Ninety out of hundred writers are like that.”
She said if the RSS “starts killing, there would not be a tribe of writers. When you write against the RSS, the Sangh Parivar have the sense to understand that the RSS is growing,” she said.
The Congress party has demanded that a criminal case be registered against Sasikala for her inflammatory speech while the state’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said: “This kind of tendency would upset our society.”
The BJP’s state spokesman M S Kumar said it would be “immature to react at this stage” as he did not know “under which circumstances” Sasikala has spoken.