Director General of Police Jacob Thomas on Friday said he saw no disgrace in chanting Jai Sri Ram and signalled that he might contest the upcoming byelections to the Assembly.
Mr Thomas, who has of late emerged as a strong advocate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has come under sharp criticism from the Left for ‘playing into the hands of divisive elements’ by urging the public to evoke Rama ‘more vigorously.’
Speaking at a meet-the-press at the Press Club here, Mr. Thomas dismissed the suggestions that the cry had metamorphosed into a clarion call to incite cow vigilantes to communal violence and that it instilled fear and insecurity among minorities.
 
“I hail from a minority community. I embrace Rama for the ideal virtues he represents,” he said.
Mr. Thomas replied that he saw no conflict of interest between his stature as a ranking officer and his public espousal of the RSS cause. The DGP saw no merit in Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s criticism that his pro-RSS stance proved him unsuitable for high office. T
he call to build a temple for Ram at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya embodied a wistfulness for traditional Indian values, and no government would build one at the disputed site arbitrarily.
The DGP’s barbed attacks on the government’s handling of the Sabarimala issue and rehabilitation of flood and cyclone victims had made him inimical to the Left.
However, Mr Thomas repeatedly refused to blame Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for his plight. The CM had no ‘negative feeling’ against him, but a former Chief Secretary did, he said.