By P. Sreekumaran
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP president Amit Shah has let the cat out of the bag at last. The pretence that the Sabarimala struggle is only to protect the rights of the believers has been dropped.
Shah’s highly provocative speech at Kannur, the hotbed of CPI(M) politics, reveals the real intent of the BJP-RSS combine: to oust the democratically-elected LDF government.
If the Vijayan government did not stop suppressing the Sabarimala agitators, the BJP would not hesitate to pull down the sole LDF government, crowed the BJP chief in an inflammatory speech that drew heavy flak both from the government and the opposition.
The LDF government had no business to rush into implementing the Supreme Court verdict on the Sabarimala issue, Shah said. In support of his argument, he said the Vijayan government had dragged its feet on implementing a number of other SC orders.
Obviously, Shah’s intemperate outburst was intended to infuse new life into the Sabarimala stir. But the political gains he evidently hopes to reap may not be as substantial as he seems to calculate. On the contrary, the BJP chief’s bluster has only alienated a sizable section of the neutral voters who were otherwise sympathetic to the cause of the so-called believers.
That the tide is turning against the Sangh parivar is clear from the aggressive counter-campaign the CPI(M)-led LDF has initiated statewide. The discomfiture of the state BJP leaders is clear from their inability to effectively defend the speech of their national chief in debates on prominent TV channels.
As against this, the explanatory meetings being held by the LDF across the state is going down well with the people. The discerning voters have started seeing through the nefarious designs of the Sangh parivar to disturb communal harmony prevailing in the state.
The gravamen of the Sangh parivar’s charge against the LDF government is that it showed undue haste to implement the apex court verdict. The Hindutva brigade conveniently forgets that the BJP government in Maharashtra also promptly implemented the SC order to lift the 400-year-old ban on entry of women into the Shani Shidnampur temple in that state. The party’s stance on Sabarimala only exposes the duplicity of the party. What is sauce for the goose is certainly not sauce for the gander, Mr. Shah.
The BJP-RSS combine suffered another setback when the High Court dismissed the plea of a Kerala BJP leader seeking a ban on the entry of non-Hindus to the Sabarimala temple. Such a ban, the HC observed, would destroy communal harmony in the state. Sabarimala temple is a shining symbol of the secular ethos and syncretic culture animating the state. The attempt was clearly to destroy the unique character of Sabarimala and bring it under the control of the Hindutva forces. The High Court verdict delivered a crippling blow to the Parivar camp, which is right now smarting under the judicial snub.
The Sangh parivar is also skating on thin ice when it contends that the Sabarimala struggle has brought about Hindu unity. If anything, the reverse is the truth. The Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, the powerful organization of the dominant Ezhavas in the state constituting 27 per cent of the population, called the BJP bluff right away. SNDP chief Vellappally Natesan snubbed Amit Shah, who had claimed in the former’s presence that the BJP and the SNDP would jointly fight against the LDF government. His organization had no such intention, Natesan retorted to the chagrin of the BJP-RSS!
Significantly, even the Nair Service Society (NSS), which is in the forefront of the campaign against the government, has refrained from saying that it would join the BJP’s struggle. The NSS chief has not made any such commitment even as he aired his anger against the LDF government’s stand against the believers. This clearly disproves the Parivar claim of Hindu unity on the Sabarimala issue. (IPA Service)
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