New Delhi: Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday, February 12, responded to Union home minister Amit Shah’s warning to the people of Karnataka to be wary of the situation in Kerala, with the chief minister stating that communities are living peacefully in the Left-ruled state.According to the news agency PTI, chief minister Vijayan – while addressing a party programme near Kottayam – said that minorities were “constantly being targeted” in BJP-ruled states. He asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader to explain what “danger” he had sensed in Kerala, according to the report.“Everyone knows the situation in Kerala. Amit Shah should say what is wrong here. Minorities in Karnataka face widespread attacks whereas religious minorities are safe in Kerala,” he said, adding that Kerala is the “only place where the communal propaganda of Sangh parivar” is not working.On Saturday, Shah said during a visit to Dakshina Kannada district that “there is Kerala in your neighbourhood”, apparently in an indirect reference to the crackdown on several leaders of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI).“However, the Sangh Parivar thrives on communalism and communal violence. They want to divert the attention of people from real issues and their misgovernance,” he claimed, according to PTI.Shah should have pointed out that people are living harmoniously in Kerala and he should hope that such a situation should be created in states where the BJP is in power, the CM said. “Our bordering areas in Karnataka, including Mangaluru, have witnessed much communal violence. A 150-year-old church in Chikmagalur was attacked by the Sangh Parivar in the 2021 Christmas season. Christians and other minorities have faced many such attacks from Sangh Parivar. But is this the situation in Kerala? No one faces any issues in Kerala because of their faith,” Pinarayi said.Vijayan also replied to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments that the CPI(M) and the Congress have chosen dosti (friendship) in Tripura and are in a kushti (tussle) in Kerala. Vijayan commented that the BJP took an “illegal route” to establish its presence in the northeastern state.“BJP has become a destructive force in this nation. If one more chance is given to BJP, it will be catastrophic for this country,” CM Pinarayi said. He suggested that regional parties should unite to fight the Sangh parivar.Vijayan also slammed the Congress for becoming a “recruiting party” for the BJP. “Senior leaders including AICC [All India Congress Committee] members, former Union ministers, parliamentarians, state ministers, state PCC [Pradesh Congress Committee] chiefs – all of them are working for BJP now. They should accept the reality. To face the BJP, they should be ready to oppose the policies of the BJP. The BJP is endangering secularism in this country,” he said.This is not the first time that senior BJP leaders have taken a jab at Kerala. In the lead-up to the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Yogi Adityanath had claimed that if the state’s voters did not vote for the BJP, it could turn into “Kashmir, Bengal or Kerala”.Vijayan had then retorted that if the north Indian state develops like Kerala, people will enjoy peace and better living conditions.“If UP turns into Kerala as @myogiadityanath fears, it will enjoy the best education, health services, social welfare, living standards and have a harmonious society in which people won’t be murdered in the name of religion and caste. That’s what the people of UP would want”, the Kerala chief minister said in a tweet.