Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday objected to the Centre’s decision to name the second campus of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Thiruvananthapuram after late Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue MS Golwalkar, PTI reported.

In a letter to Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, Vijayan said the institute is a premier research institution and has been “above political divides”.

The chief minister noted that the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology was initially run by the state government and was handed over to the Centre “with the aim of developing it into a centre achieving international standards in research and development”. Keeping this in mind, he said that it would be better to name the institute after an eminent Indian scientist of international repute instead of Golwalkar.

“I request you to reconsider the decision, if it has already been taken, or not to contemplate such a decision, if already not taken,” he wrote. “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 avoid controversies in the public domain.”

On Friday, Vardhan, who is also the minister of science and technology, had announced that the second campus of RGCB will be named Shri Guruji Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar National Centre for Complex Disease in Cancer and Viral Infection. Vardhan said the institute would offer cutting edge technologies, therapies, clinical trials for cancer vaccines and immunotherapeutics, according to Times Now.

‘BJP trying to communalise everything’

Several other politicians in Kerala also objected to the decision. Left Democratic Front convener and Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kerala Secretary A Vijayaraghavan accused the BJP of trying to “communalise everything”. “The BJP is attempting to bring communal elements to the forefront,” he added. “As part of this plan, they decided to name the new campus of the RGCB after Golwalkar.”

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala also came out against the decision.

Tharoor, in a series of tweets, wondered whether the Centre wanted to “memorialise a bigoted Hitler-admirer, who in a 1966 speech to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, asserted the supremacy of religion over science.”

The Congress leader contrasted this with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s contributions and said he always encouraged scientific temperament. “He [Rajiv Gandhi] inspired scientific innovation and allocated funds for it,” he added. “Are there no BJP icons who’ve at least tried to do the same thing?”

Tharoor suggested that the name of Dr Palpu, a renowned bacteriologist and social reformer, be considered instead. He said that Palpu was an expert in serum therapy and tropical medicine from Cambridge and Director of the Vaccine Institute and Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health.

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

Chennithala, meanwhile, said that naming the campus after Golwalkar was not acceptable, adding that he had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting that the decision be withdrawn.

“Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a great leader who laid the foundation for modern India and encouraged the progress made by the country in the field of science and technology,” he said. “What was the share of Golwalkar in the field of science and technology in the country? The Centre should withdraw the move.”

Senior CPI leader and former minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran said he was shocked to hear about the Centre’s decision to name the research institute after an RSS member.

“There can’t be any other person who has spread so much hatred in the history of the country,” he noted on Golwalkar. “No one should be allowed to sow such poisonous seeds in the land where reformers like Sree Narayana Guru, Ayyankali and Chattambi Swami have flourished the ideas of renaissance.”