Kerala BJP files police complaint against Speaker over alleged ‘anti-Hindu’ speech

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Kerala have launched an offensive against state Assembly Speaker AN Shamseer alleging that the remarks made by him during a recent speech were “anti-Hindu”. RS Rajeev, the Thiruvananthapuram district vice president of the party, handed over a complaint to the district police Commissioner C Nagaraju on Monday, July 24, that accused the Speaker of offending Hindu religious sentiments by referring to ‘Pushpakavimana’ and the Hindu deity Ganapathy a myth. 

Commissioner Nagaraju told TNM that the complaint has been forwarded to the Ernakulam Rural police as the speech in question was made under that jurisdiction. He said that the Thiruvananthapuram police will not be registering a case against the Speaker as the “speech was not made in Thiruvananthapuram.”

Speaker Shamseer made the statement, alleged to be controversial,  at the inauguration of Vidya Jyothi programme in Ernakulam district’s Kunnathunad on July 21. Addressing students at the Government Higher Secondary School there, the Speaker said, “Who invented the aeroplane? When I studied, it was the Wright brothers. Now it is not. In the age of Hindutva, it is said to be the pushpakavimanam. … Science is being replaced with myths. Textbooks promote myths instead of science. That is why answering the question about the invention of the aeroplane with ‘Wright brothers' becomes wrong,” Shamseer said. He also referred to the claim that plastic surgery was invented in India, as Ganapathy is an elephant-headed deity on a human body, made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, in his speech.

According to Onmanorama, the complaint said that the Speaker’s comments should be taken seriously as they were made by the Assembly Speaker and a legislator. “It assumes greater seriousness since it was made before school children. Shamseer's speech was reported by the mainstream media and has circulated across the country. He has hurt the sentiments of Hindus," the complaint reportedly claimed.

A statement issued by the BJP said, “Shamseer’s act is punishable under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code. The fact that he is an MLA and Speaker of the Kerala Assembly makes the offence more serious. Shamseer made his statement with the good conviction that people all over the world would see it. It is a violation of the oath of office and unconstitutional. Therefore, the BJP demands that a case be registered against Shamseer, and he should be arrested and an investigation should be started.”

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has decided to lodge complaints against the Speaker in all police stations in the state.  The Speaker’s comment also invited social media comments from BJP’s national leadership. The party’s spokesperson Amit Malviya tweeted, “[Shamseer] is exploiting his position in public life, to denigrate Hindu faith and beliefs. Hindumisia is deep rooted in the Communists, who have now forged an alliance with the Congress, a self proclaimed Muslim party (sic).”

The state unit of the BJP has also issued statements asking the Congress and Rahul Gandhi to make their stance on the issue clear.