A BJP national council member and former Kerala unit president has said that “hatred of Muslims” wouldn’t help the country and added that no community should be excluded from anything.

“We cannot exclude any community,” the usually reticent C.K. Padmanabhan, 75, told the Malayalam channel Media One, answering a question about Muslims being denied the Citizenship (Amendment) Act’s benefits.

“Hatred of Muslims will not do any good to us. In no way will it help our nation’s all-round progress and brotherhood among the people,” he said.

He added: “My Hindutva is that of Swami Vivekananda and (Kerala social reformer) Sree Narayana Guru. I don’t need anyone else’s (Hindutva). Our nation’s strength is our unity and its beauty is our multiculturalism.”

Asked about what the interviewer described as the BJP’s tendency to spread communal hatred, especially before elections, Padmanabhan avoided a direct answer. Instead, he described the evolution of his attitude towards Muslims.

He said that when the then Left government in Kerala had formed the Muslim-majority district of Malappuram in 1969, a young Padmanabhan had joined the Jana Sangh agitation against the move.

“I was imprisoned for protesting against the formation of the Malappuram district,” he said.

However, all the fears about a Muslim-majority district were later disproved, he said.

“The people of Malappuram will die for you. I have personally experienced it. I don’t have to make things up. They are such loving people,” he said.

“I have hundreds of young Muslim friends. We can totally depend on them and trust them…. Muslim hatred will be of no use other than destroying the brotherhood in our state. I know that very well.”

He added: “Where is the need to view them under a lens of suspicion? This is not north India. Here we live among Muslims and Christians.

“Our Kerala society celebrates Ramzan, Onam and Christmas together, and (people from different religious communities) exchange food on these days. Whoever tries to bring in any ideology to hurt this beautiful system will fail.”

The saffron ecosystem continues to malign Malappuram as a hotbed of terrorism and “love jihad”.

Padmanabhan, who was Kerala BJP president from 1998 to 2003, has largely been viewed as a moderate leader.