In what is perceived as a rowback from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president K. Surendran’s earlier position that the party would give unqualified support to Kerala’s bid to build a mass rapid transport system if it approves metro expert and BJP fellow traveller E. Sreedharan’s alternative proposal to SilverLine, he said that the party will discuss the proposal in detail and take a final call on it. In a press conference on Sunday, he said that the BJP’s position is that Kerala needs a fast train.
On Saturday, Union Minister of State V. Muraleedharan and BJP national executive member Sobha Surendran seemed to suggest that the party’s State president had jumped the gun by appearing to imply that the party would not hold up Kerala’s development if the State government accepts Mr. Sreedharan’s high-speed alternative to LDF’s semi-high-speed SilverLine.
‘U-turn by govt.’
Mr. Surendran said the State government had taken a U-turn regarding SilverLine. The government as well as the CPI(M) should apologise to the people for spending ₹50 crore to prepare a detailed project report for SilverLine, he said. He also lashed out at the CPI(M) for its seminar on the Uniform Civil Code held at Kozhikode on Saturday, which, according to him, ended up as a typical party conference.
Mr. Surendran said that though the CPI(M) had earlier said that the event would be in the form of a debate, Muslim women did not get an opportunity to speak at the seminar. Those who support the UCC were not invited to the seminar, which was a futile attempt at satisfying its vote bank. The CPI(M), which had been talking about women’s equality, has now abandoned it for a few votes, he alleged.
