Kummanam Rajasekharan, senior RSS Pracharak and the leader of Hindu Aikya Vedi and Vishwa Hindu Parishad, took over as the state BJP president on December 19, 2015. His elevation was announced by the party president Amit Shah the previous day at Delhi. Kummanam, even though has never been a BJP functionary until now, has been a dynamic Hindu activist since his school days. He started his social work as a Bala Swayamsevak in his little known village, Kummanam. After becoming a Diploma holder in journalism he worked in several newspapers like Deepika (run by Christian Church), Keraladesham, Kerala Bhooshanam, Rashtravartha eveninger and Janmabhumi daily (both run by the Sangh associated organisations). He was the Chairman and now the Managing Editor of Janmabhumi daily. He led the historic Nilakkal Agitation against the Church’s sinister design to build a church at Nilakkal, the property belonging to Sabarimala, the world famous pilgrim centre. At last the Church had to bow before the rousing Hindu will. He played significant role, in the capacity of ‘managing editor’ to make Janmabhumi daily what it is now. As the Hindu Aikya Vedi convener he rubbed shoulders with late P Madhavan and late AR Sreenivasan, veteran RSS leader and senior Hindu Munnani leader respectively, to materialise the Paliyam Vilambaram (Paliyam Proclamation), issued by the senior most Tantric experts met in Paliyam palace near Kochi in 1986, which asserted that none becomes Brahmin by birth, but, by his karma and any Hindu who is properly trained in temple rituals can perform as a priest whatever his parents’ caste might be.
After taking over as the Convener of Guruvayoor Temple Action Committee in 1988, Kummanam led a successful agitation for removing a Christian Jacob Tampi from the Guruvayoor Temple Management Committee. The same year he was the trusted lieutenant of P Madhavan in the victorious agitation for stopping thookkam, a barbaric painful ritual in Elvaoor temple near Kochi where the devotees were hung in a tall device by piercing the hook into their flesh. He was in the forefront of the Hindu movement led by RSS which stood for the Hindus when 8 of them were mercilessly killed by Muslim fanatics in Maradu beach near Kozhikkode. He also led the famous and successful anti-Aranmula Airport Agitation against the cruel assault on the heritage, environment and religious sentiments of that area. It was again a success story. In short, the name Kummanam Rajasekharan has become synonymous with the Hindutva movement in Kerala since the last more than three decades. In 1987, he resigned his job in Food Corporation of India and contested to the assembly from Thiruvananthapuram East constituency as a common candidate of both BJP and Hindu Munnani and he stood second fighting against both CPM-led LDF and Congress-led UDF.
Kummanam’s political entry is really a shot in the arm for the BJP workers in Kerala. They believe that his dynamic leadership will lead the party to flying colours in the imminent state assembly elections. The right thinking people in Kerala do think the same.
Naturally, both UDF regime led by CM Oommen Chandy and LDF led by CPM are spreading Goebbelsian lies against Kummanam. Even otherwise both Fronts have been in knee-jerking terror since Vellappally’s Samatva Munnetta Yatra which woke up a Hindutva wave throughout the state. The Yatra came close on the heels of the rosy victories BJP reaped when it joined hands with Vellappally-led SNDP in the recently concluded Local Self Governing Bodies election.
T Satisan
