In the eye of the storm after inaugurating the organising committee office for the state-level meeting of the RSS, N Padmalochan,a senior CPM leader and mayor of Kollam,on Tuesday regretted being the chief guest of the RSS. He told the party-controlled TV channel Kairali that I realised that me going for the RSS function was a mistake. It should not have taken place. I would not repeat the mistake. Padmalochans unconditional apology came a day before the Kollam district committee of the party would decide on whether the senior leader should be served with a disciplinary action. Soon after the incident,Kollam district secretary K Rajagopal had expressed the partys displeasure over Padmalochans presence at the RSS function. Under his leadership,the Kollam municipal corporation had allowed the Sangh Parivar to clean a public ground,where the RSS would hold their meeting. Last month,the CPM-led government had allowed parole for RSS workers who had been undergoing life sentence on charges of murdering two CPM workers in Thiruvananthapuram. The parole for the RSS from the CPM government had shocked the Marxist circles. In a similar incident,both parties had tried to settle a political murder in Alappuzha,another southern district,by forcing the witnesses to turn hostile. However,RSS state joint secretary J Nandakumar said his organisation had invited the mayor as the head of the city. Several leaders from other political streams had attended the RSS functions in the past.
