By P. Sreekumaran
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
A frustrated BJP has upped the ante against the Left Democratic Front (LDF)
government in the state.
The reasons for the BJP’s
frustration are not difficult to guess. The much-hyped Sabarimala agitation is
once again losing steam. True, the agitation received a new lease of life
thanks to a political blunder by the Pinarayi government. But the BJP-RSS is
finding it difficult to sustain the momentum. It is against this backdrop that
the saffron camp has turned up the heat on the LDF government.
The first salvo was fired by BJP
state president P S Sreedharan Pillai, who saw a ‘golden opportunity’ in the
Sabarimala issue to expand the party’s base in the state. Party MP Nishikant
Dube followed it up by raising the issue in the Lok Sabha. The demand was
simple: intervene in Kerala to end what the party called ‘unremitting violence’
against the BJP-RSS cadres and leaders.
Taking the cue from Dube, State BJP
leaders like general secretary MT Ramesh have started to threaten the LDF
government openly. It is not all that difficult to use Article 356 against the
LDF government, thundered an unusually combative Ramesh the other day. The
message was loud and clear: stop the violence against the party cadres or be
prepared to face the consequences.
As if all this was not enough,
governor P. Sadasivam piled on the pressure by demanding a report from the
chief minister. The governor’s action came after a directive from Union home
minister Rajnath Singh.
The chief minister has since
submitted his report backed up by video clips, audio clips and photographic
evidence of widespread violence indulged in by the Hindutva brigade. The burden
of the CM’s song was that it is the BJP-RSS combine which unleashed violence in
the wake of the successful entry of two young women into the sanctum sanctorum
of Sabarimala. The BJP cadres literally went berserk singling out the media
personnel, especially women reporters.
Understandably, the violence proved
counter-productive. It alienated a substantial section of the people who were
otherwise sympathetic to the saffron camp’s cause. The BJP’s charge that it was
government-sponsored violence failed to carry conviction with the highly
enlightened people of the state, who saw through the sinister BJP game: unleash
widespread violence and then clamour for the ouster of the only communist
government in the country.
It is the failure of this strategy
that has forced the Hindutva forces to change their tactics. Believing that the
time has come to openly seek the ouster of the Pinarayi government on the
ground of a ‘complete law and order breakdown in the state,’ the battery of BJP
leaders have gone into an overdrive. Thus began the orchestrated campaign for
the dismissal of the LDF government.
The political mercury is all set to
soar with the impending visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president
Amit Shah to Kerala soon with the Kerala government equally determined to
frustrate the BJP-RSS design. (IPA
Service)
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