Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan asks Centre to not rename institute after RSS leader MS Golwalkar

Harsh Vardhan had announced on Friday that the second campus of RGCB would be renamed "Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Disease in Cancer and Viral Infection."

In his letter, the Kerala CM wrote: The RGCB was initially run by the state government and was handed over to the government of India with the aim of developing it into a centre achieving international standards in research and development."

"Keeping this in view, the government of Kerala is of the opinion that the campus be named after some eminent Indian scientist of international repute instead of the proposed name," he wrote.

"I request you to reconsider the decision, if it has already been taken, or not to contemplate such a decision, if already not taken. I hope that your ministry will consider favourably our proposal to name the new campus after an eminent Indian scientist. This will keep up the reputation of the Institution and help to avoid controversies in the public domain," Vijayan said.

Criticising the move, LDF convener and CPI(M) state secretary A Vijayaraghavan said this is the way the party works and communalise everything.

"This is exactly how the BJP works. They generally try to bring up communal symbols. During the campaign in Hyderabad election they wanted to change the name of they city. They changed the name of Allahabad and want to change names of other cities. That is the style of BJP, as part of that, in Kerala they have given the name of Sanghparivar to a scientific institute," he said.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor in a series of tweets questioned the Centre's move to rename the institute.

"...What is MSG's contribution to science other than promoting the disease of communalism? As for Rajiv Gandhi's contribution, he inspired scientific innovation and allocated funds for it. Are there no BJP icons who have at least tried to do the same thing? Must centre memorialise a bigoted Hitler-admirer who in a 1966 speech to VHP asserted the supremacy of religion over science (sic)?" Tharoor tweeted.

"I suggest a local hero: Dr P Palpu, renowned bacteriologist and social reformer, born in Thiruvananthapuram, 1863. Expert in serum therapy and tropical medicine from Cambridge. Director of the Vaccine Institute and Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health," he tweeted.

"This forward-looking scientist & medical practitioner would be far more appropriate than an obscurantist ideologue of no scientific achievement & no discernible contribution to public health. It’s a BJP insult to Thiruvananthapuram & should be resisted. @drharshvardhan," he posted.