Kerala’s political affairs for the last two decades have been running on the rails of controversies, scoops of mysteries and scams. It is an unending, frequent and enduring phenomenon of the ‘God’s Own Country’s’ political contours by which tent managers of Kerala Political Circus effectively shift the masses’ attention from vital issues of the state. That political Front comes victorious which will create an effective controversy on the eve months of voting days. United Democratic Front (UDF), present day reigning Party of Kerala that has been running the state administration for the last five years, has now entered in the final round of the election scenario. This ruling Front of Kerala had undergone to several such controversies and they survived every allegation by means of creating a new one or counter movement and shifting the focus of media and men to new one. The last such one was the convicted criminal’s revelation cum threat of the release of CD’s which contained sexual relations with the notorious ‘solar’ fraudulent lady by MLAs, Cabinet Ministers and Chief Minister. It turned as a death-bell to the sinking ship of UDF which is nearing its term and yet to face another election. Now Kerala as a whole is nearing to another election. In the light of it, the ruling Front which now subject to the said sex scandal is waiting to escape from this ‘chakravyuha’. By virtue of luck the UDF got the straw of R Sanker’s statue unveiling ceremony as a windfall opportunity in the political gambling of Kerala. Now the entire focus of Kerala has shifted towards Statue unveiling.
UDF and LDF are together, striving to neutralise the recently successfully concluded Samatva Munnetta Yatra under the leadership of SNDP leader Vellappally Natesan on behalf of the ever marginalising Hindu society of Kerala. The LDF and UDF are in the union, by ignoring all their political differences, since the Yatra has begun, to think of pounding out the impact of the Samatva Munnetta Yatra. The first outcome was the distortion of Vellappally Natesan’s protest against the government’s religion based and discriminatory disaster relief policy. Natesan said there was religion based discrimination on the part of the government in distributing disaster reliefs.
Further, he said ‘only Muslims get due assistance from the government when they die in disaster’ and “one should die as a Muslim to get benefits from government”. The government registered a police case against him under the sections of inciting communal hatred provisions of the above said statement. As a precaution Natesan reserved his earlier invitation to the Chief Minister in the proposed statue unveiling program. Natesan doubted that at the last minute Chief Minister might announce that he could not share the dais with a person charged with communal hatred. Such a withdrawal, no doubt, will fade gleam of the already concluded Yatra. The wise and insightful SNDP leader smelled a rat. In an earlier occasion LDF Chief Minister EK Nayanar boycotted at the last minute of AB Vajpayee’s function of the inauguration of the State sponsored Kudumbashree (women empowerment program) program on May 17, 1998. Anyhow Natesan averted such a repetition of history.
It is necessary to say a few words about the Congress leader of Kerala, R Sankar (1909-1972). He was not a conventional Chief Minister of Kerala and was a man above corruption, scandal and nepotism. His tenure, as CM of Kerala (1962-1964), turned down as an eyesore to the Catholic Church of Kerala. In R Sankar’s cabinet (1962-1964) a Catholic Church Icon handled the portfolio of Home. He was the Church’s nominee to the office of the CM. It is said that then the high-command was well aware of the weakness of the Icon. Hence, they preferred R Sankar as the CM of Kerala. Thus the Church and the honorable Church Icon began to haunt Sankar and the Congress Party. It finally ended in the birth of Kerala Congress.
Thus the first parting of the ways was witnessed by the Congress Party; later it turned as a common jargon of the Party. Thus the age-old Catholic Ezhava wedlock started from the days of Nivarthana (Abstention Movement of Travancore 1933-1937) agitation of Travancore ended as a tragedy. (It is believed that the Abstention Movement was the handiwork of the Church that aimed to widen the caste differences in Kerala along with the slander of the popularity of Diwan Sir CP Ramaswami Iyer, who was responsible for the historic Temple Entry Proclamation. By this proclamation Church’s opportunity to enhance its frontiers of Christendom in Kerala ended).
Nevertheless, in the mean time, Church’s Icon lost his public image and caught red handed by the public in doubtful circumstances in the wee hours of the day along with a ‘social lady’ when the state car which was driven by the home minister himself met an accident and R Sankar, the last of the idealistic tradition of the Congress Party, removed him from the cabinet within twenty four hours of the incident. Hence Sankar ‘Cleaned the Augean Stables’. Thereupon the Catholic Church parted the way with the Congress and gave birth to Kerala Congress.
Later Congress and Kerala Congress joined together and formed UDF. This new coalition widely opened the corridors of the Congress Party for the Catholic Church and furthermore, the ascendency of Sonia turned as a blessing in disguise to the Catholic Church all over Bharat and it provided an upper hand to the Church in the Congress Party. Hence the Church ‘regained the lost paradise’ of power politics in Kerala and the rest of Bharat once again.
Now, both Fronts of Kerala are afraid of the victory of the BJP-SNDP led Hindu political Front in the forthcoming Kerala Legislative Assembly elections. In such a situation survival of both the fronts are challenging questions to the respective. So the question of avoidance of Chief Minister of Kerala by SNDP from their private congregation of unveiling ceremony of the statue of R Sankar as a burning issue is their dire need of the hour. It is interesting to see that the government and the opposition front of Kerala maintained certain extend of pre-conceived reservations from the very beginning of the Modi government. The Chief Minister Oommen Chandy abstained from the oath taking ceremony of Narendra Modi. Similarly the Chief Minister of Kerala deliberately avoided the PM of Bharat from the foundation stone laying ceremony of Vizhanjam Port.
Vizhinjam port was the fifty years’ old dream of the people of Kerala. In front of the Congress governments of Delhi, the demand of the people of Kerala for the port had remained as a crying in the wilderness for the last fifty years. The long cherished dream of the people of Kerala was fulfilled by Narendra Modi. Above all, the present government in New Delhi made lavish financial aid to fulfill the long cherished dream of the people of Kerala. Thus now we can call the government of Kerala for its lapse of avoiding Prime Minister of Bharat from the inauguration of the work of the new port as a mark of ingratitude.
Thus, one can depict Kerala government as the synonym to ‘ingratitude’. In the light of the above stated facts and figures let readers judge who the villain of Kerala is.
Prof C I Issac
(The writer is Rtd. History Professor and Vice President of Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram, Thiruvananthapuram)
