archive: CPI-M leader attacks Nair community in Kerala
CPI-M leader attacks Nair community in Kerala
D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram
Rediff on Net
October 13, 1999
Title: CPI-M leader attacks Nair community in Kerala
Author: D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: October 13, 1999
Close on the heels of the missile fired by noted Malayalam writer
Sukumar Azhikode against the leaders of the Ezhava community, a Left
intellectual has raked up communal passions among the Nairs, another
dominant Hindu community, by questioning their secular credentials.
While Azhikode targeted leaders by terming them as unscrupulous liquor
barons defiling the sanctity of the Ezhava movement, Communist Party
of India-Marxist ideologue P Govinda Pillai, has struck against Nair
leader Mannath Padmanabhan by calling him a "communally poisonous
serpent."
The attack on the leaders of the two dominant Hindu communities by the
two Left intellectuals have aroused passions in both communities,
leading to angry reactions from senior leaders. What forced the Left
camp to hurt the two communities at a time when the CPI-M is trying to
woo them into the fold is a mystery.
The leaders of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam and the Nair
Service Society, the socio-cultural organisations of the Ezhavas and
Nairs respectively, are not willing to dismiss the attacks as innocent
outbursts. SNDP president Vellappally Natesan believes that Azhikode's
resignation as the chairman of the advisory committee attached to the
Sree Naryana Dharma Sangham Trust along with its administrator Dr M
Sharangadharan was prompted by charges of sexual exploitation and
financial embezzlement levelled against some members of the Trust
administration.
Azhikode had mentioned the presence of liquor barons in the Sivagiri
mutt, which serves as the headquarters of various socio-cultural
organisations founded by Sree Narayana Guru, a noted social reformer
and the spiritual head of the Ezhavas, as the reason for his
resignation. He had given a clarion call to liberate the mutt from the
clutches of the liquor lobby.
The NSS leaders feel the attack against their leader has been prompted
by the equi-distance policy they adopted in the just-concluded Lok
Sabha election. The CPI-M had been trying to build bridges with the
powerful NSS leadership after they pulled out their political outfit,
the National Democratic Party, from the Congress-led United Democratic
Front.
Incidentally, the NDP pullout was prompted by the alleged consecration
of Mannam Samadhi by the Congress during the visit of the then prime
minister P V Narasimha Rao in 1996.
The NSS leaders do not think that Govinda Pillai, who has been
striving to fill the intellectual vacuum created by the death of E M S
Nampoodiripad, unleashed the attack against Mannam without the
knowledge of the CPI-M leadership. Pillai had castigated the
founder-leader of the NSS while discussing the Nair and Christian
alignment against the E M S ministry of 1957 in the CPI-M organ,
Deshabhimani, edited by politburo member and Left Democratic Front
convenor V S Achutanandan.
NSS general secretary P K Narayana Panickar targeted both Pillai and
the CPI-M in his counter-attack. He asked whether it was Mannath
Padmanabhan Pillai, who shunned his caste surname or Govinda Pillai,
who still "wags his casteist tail".
The former had shunned his surname as a symbolic gesture to affirm his
unbounded commitment to the welfare of human society.
Panickar reminded Pillai that besides "communal organisations", many
political outfits like the Revolutionary Socialist Party, now part of
the LDF, had associated with the liberation struggle.
As regards the CPI-M, Panickar wondered how it could question the
secular credential of anybody when it appeases casteism for retaining
power and exploit it during the election and selection of candidates.
The SNDP leaders say the motive behind the resignation of Azhikode and
Saranghadharan would come to light when the charges levelled against
the Trust administration are inquired into.
Azhikode had said that he had resigned due to the presence of liquor
barons like SNDP president Vellapally Natesan in the Trust. The SNDP
president, however, said that this was just a pretext. The real
attempt is to seek anticipatory bail against highly damaging charges,
he claimed.
"I am not hurt by Azhikode's attack as it was nothing new for the
SNDP, which has a history of eminent leaders like R Sankar and Kumaran
Asan being hurt by members," he said and added that he would continue
with his style of functioning.
He termed Azhikode as a tool in the hands of someone trying to destroy
the increasing strength of the SNDP movement.
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