The Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Palakkad municipality saw a clash between councillors after they needed to decide the naming of a skill development centre for disabled persons after RSS founder K B Hedgewar. The UDF and LDF councillors raised slogans against the move but the ruling BJP has reportedly passed the resolution amid the clash.
The local TV channels have shown real-time clash between the representatives inside the municipality hall where the police is seen trying to separate the BJP councillors and those of the LDF and UDF.
The municipality's decision to name the skill development centre after Hedgewar has sparked a row in Palakkad since the foundation stone-laying event on April 11.
Protest At Council Hall
The LDF and UDF councillors came prepared with placards in English which said, "who is this Hedgewar" and also in Malayalam which demanded an apology from the BJP over its move.
They waved placards in the council hall and shouted slogans against the municipality and the BJP for deciding to name the centre after the RSS founder.
The BJP councillors also came with their own placards in which they said they do not want a 'Jinnah street' in Palakkad and wanted it to be renamed as 'Kalikkara street' -- its original name.
As both sides shouted slogans against each other and waved their placards, the situation escalated into clashes between them and the police intervened to separate them and moved them outside the council hall. Thereafter, both sides continued with their protests outside the hall.
As the UDF and LDF councillors opposed naming the centre after Hedgwar, the BJP councillors demanded that a street in the Palakkad town named after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founding father of Pakistan, should be renamed.
"We never raised this issue before. But, since they (LDF-UDF) are opposing the municipality decision (to name the centre after Hedgewar), we are raising this demand now," one of the BJP councillors told reporters outside the municipality.
Protests were held by the Congress, its youth wing and the Left organisations against the centre being named after the RSS founder.
The BJP retaliated with its own protest marches against the Congress which in turn lodged a complaint with the police against the saffron party's Palakkad district president Prasanth Siva over his allegedly threatening remarks against MLA Rahul Mamkootathil.
