Click to play videoKannur (Ker): Risking disciplinary action from his party, two-term CPI(M) MP A P Abdullakutty on Saturday stuck to his stand that the development model being pursued by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was worthy of emulation while outrightly rejecting the "communal agenda" of the saffronite leader.
In a statement issued shortly after sending his reply to the explanation sought by the party district unit, the Kannur MP reiterated his view on the investor-friendly development atmosphere created by Modi in Gujarat and said he went on record on this with the good intention of triggering a debate in Kerala as a state that suffered from problems like hartals.
While the CPI(M) in the state was yet to come out with its official reaction on the issue, LDF convener and party state secretariat member Vaikom Viswan said he did not agree with Abdullakutty's view that Modi's development model was praiseworthy.
"I will not pardon Modi for his communal agenda. But I will give full marks to his efforts for development. I don't think there is anything wrong in that," Abdullakutty said.
He recalled that none other than the party patriarch late E M S Namboodiripad had criticised the tendency of seeing politics in development while launching the "people's campaign for decentralised development" in the 1990s under the then LDF Government in Kerala.
The CPI(M) MP, who in the past also embarrassed the party leadership by his comments on hartals and matters of faith, said even Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had said that "American efficiency" could be taken as a model to overcome the recession in the Soviet Union.
Abdullakutty said, "the electoral mandate received by Sheila Dixit in Delhi and Hooda in Haryana are for development. The defeat suffered by Shibu Soren in Jharkhand could be read along with this," he said.
He said the majority of voters were educated youth, who would not accept anybody who could not offer them development.
"Some people say that Muslims in Kerala would react adversely against what I had said. But they are not aware of the changes that have taken place in my community. It is Muslims who wish for an investor-friendly climate in the state," he said.
He said, many of his Muslim friends had patted him for speaking about the developments in Gujarat while on a visit to an Islamic country. (Abdullakutty made his comment on Modi while addressing a seminar organised by expatriates in Dubai last month).
"Kerala had lost 83 days last year on account of hartals, some of which were held at the local level. How could a state which allowed to lose 83 days a year be able to attract investment? It was to spark a debate on issues like this that I gave expression to my thoughts," he said.
On the reported comment by a CPI(M) leader that only "a mad man can heap praises on Modi even on development", Abdullakutty said his reaction to it was "God will not pardon you."
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