HVK Archives: Sangh Parivar bid to woo tribals in Communist Kerala
Sangh Parivar bid to woo tribals in Communist Kerala - The Indian Express
K A Antony
()
7 April 1997
Title : Sangh Parivar bid to woo tribals in Communist Kerala
Author : K A Antony
Publication : The Indian Express
Date : April 7, 1997
The Sangh Parivar is making an all-out attempt to become a force to
reckon with in Kerala. It is using the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, one
of its frontal organisations, to do the ground work for its
political progress in the region.
Political observers attach considerable significance to the Hindu
mela and the anti-conversion rally organised by the VHP at Iritty,
near here, last week.
The huge turnout at the anti-conversion rally held on Easter day
has made one thing clear - that the Sangh Parivar, hence the
Bharatiya Janata Party, is no more a force to be taken lightly.
They are making deep inroads into the Communist bastions,
Christian-dominated settler areas and the Dalit colonies.
This is evident from the fact that the BJP, during the last three
or four years, has opened several new units in the settler areas.
Interestingly enough, the office-bearers of many of these units are
either Christians or Adivasis.
Evidently, there is little hostility towards the BJP even among
non-Hindus. The same, however, cannot be said of the latter's
approach to the VHP whose Hindutva is seen too uncompromising for
comfort.
The aim of the Hindu mela, as announced by the VHP state organising
secretary Kummanam Rajesekharan, was to effect a Hindu
consolidation against the conversions being carried out by
Christian missionaries and Muslims.
"We are trying to awaken the Hindus against conversion. There will
be no more conversions by 2000AD," he claimed.
Relevantly, no mass conversions seem to have taken place anywhere
in Kerala during the last 15 years. Which raises the question
whether the Hindutva forces have a game plan that goes beyond
negating, if not stalling, prostration. Though there were a few
instances of religious conversions in Kannur, Wayanad and Palakkad
districts, they were not of must consequence. The Iritty experiment
has proved beyond doubt that the Hindu card would have the desired
effect even in a district like Kannur, known to be the heartland of
Communist movement.
More than 15,000 people, including women and Adivasis, from the
three blocks of Peravoor, Irritty and Aralam turned up for the
rally addressed by a little-known VHP leader like Madhu Deolkhar.
"We never expected such a huge turnout, especially after the media
had reported that Ashok Singhal was not coming," said a VHP leader.
The VHP leaders have already announced similar exercises in other
parts of Kerala also.
Besides organising Hindu melas and anti-conversion rallies, the VHP
has also decided to deploy 300 trained Hindu missionaries in the
rural areas very shortly.
The VHP's target group here is the poverty-stricken Adivasis. The
Vanavasi Vikas Kendras floated by the organisation have been in
operation in Adivasi-dominated districts like Wayanad and Palakkad.
But they have not had the desired impact. This was because of the
influence the Naxalite groups and the Communist parties, especially
the CPIM, have had on the tribals.
But now that the Adivasis have developed a feeling that they had
been betrayed by the CPM-led LDF Government, the Sangh Parivar is
making an all-out attempt to win over the tribals to its side. The
secret meeting between Madhu Deolkhar and the tribal leaders of
Wayanad and the visits made by Hindu sanyasins to the tribal
colonies in Kannur last week is indicative of the same.
While the VHP leaders in Wayanad were tight-lipped on what
transpired at the meeting, an Adivasi leader who attended the
meeting told The Indian Express that Deolkhar urged them to stand
by the Sangh Parivar if they really wanted to have their rights and
privileges protected.
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