Thiruvananthapuram: Speaker of the Kerala legislative assembly A N Shamseer should withdraw his controversial remarks and apologise to the Hindu community for hurting their sentiments, BJP state president K Surendran said on Wednesday.
"The speaker holds a position of neutrality. He should adopt an unbiased, non-discriminatory approach towards all religions," Surendran added.
Throwing its weight behind Kerala assembly speaker A N Shamseer, CPM on Wednesday said that Thalassery MLA need not apologise for his comments against the Centre's education policy.
The party, in its official statement, said Shamseer has not done anything wrong by commenting against the plans to 'teach children Hindu myths' instead of scientific temper.
The CPM secretariat will meet the media in the afternoon to spell out its stance, a source said.
During an event organised at a school in Ernakulam district recently, Shamseer allegedly accused the Centre of trying to teach children Hindu myths instead of accomplishments in science and technology.
"People belonging to Hindu faith have lived in harmony with other religions in Kerala. When a person belonging to another community criticises our community we cannot sit back. We will work against this with RSS and BJP if the need arises. This is about our belief system," he said.
The BJP and outfits like the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Nair Service Society (NSS) have launched a strong campaign against Shamseer saying they are aggrieved over the speaker's remarks regarding Lord Ganesh and the mythical 'pushpaka vimanam'.
