Regret appearing for T P Senkumar in SC, says Adv. Dushyant Dave

Thiruvananthapuram: Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave has said he regrets representing former Kerala DGP T P Senkumar in the Supreme Court in his battle against the LDF government over his removal as the state police chief.

“I am disappointed over his anti-Muslim remarks. I would not have appeared for his if I had known his mentality,” said Dave, who appeared for Senkumar for free of cost.

I represented him only out of academic interests. Besides, I thought he was a perfect gentleman. However, his pro-RSS stance has upset me, Dave said.

Senkumar who retired last month, had raised the hackles of political outfits after he made statements against Muslims. Targeting the community, he told online publication Samakalika Malayalam in an interview on Saturday: “There should be attempts from within the community to check religious extremism. When speaking about extremism, there is no sense speaking about the RSS. One cannot have a comparison between the RSS and the Islamic State.”

He said a section of the Muslim population still practised “love jihad”. “If religious conversions happen over love, such things would have taken place in all religions. But such conversions happen only in the Muslim community,” he alleged.

He also spoke of “demographic change” and linked it to the alleged “growing Muslim population in Kerala”. “Of 100 births in the state, 42 belong to the Muslim community, which constitutes 27 per cent of the population. The birth rate of Hindus, which constitutes 54 per cent of population, is below 48.5 per cent. The birth rate of Christians, who constitute 19 per cent of the state’s population is 15 per cent. If demography is changing in this manner, what kind of change would be taking place in Kerala in the future? Although the Christian birth rate is coming down, their population is not falling because of the conversions they are doing,” he said.