The tiny red citadel left for the Left – after its massive rejection in Bengal and Tripura – Kerala is crumbling as the voters refused to toe their line in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. The Left alliance in power for the last eight years could win only one seat in the State, the same number won by Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala. The debuting of BJP with the win in the Trissur constituency with over 75,000 margin gave the voice not only to the majority Hindu community to vent out their supressed feelings on the injustice meted out during several decades but even the minority communities are also raising their voice against the Left, especially CPM, as both Muslims and Christians now claim to be the victims of Communist communalism. Both churches and mosques are now reverberating with the stories of how CPM and other Left parties used them as electoral shields through pseudo-secular practices and how minority vote banks were built through false narrative of ‘aggressive Hindu nationalism’ spread by Left in the country.
CPM’s Politics Exposed
The projection of CPM as the protector of minorities got exposed during the election campaign. The communal politics of so-called secular champion CPM is out in the open as the minority communities-both Muslim and Christians- poured out their hearts in the public. Even the Left brethren CPI talked about ‘Red communalism’ of CPM in its meetings. The CPI District Council held on June 17, this year, described the anti-CAA campaigns as “minority appeasement exercises with the religious leaders getting the prominence the people felt them as Muslim religious meetings rather than Left political meetings”. Another important irony is CPM accusing the CPI of Muslim appeasement and CPI calling CPM as more appeaser of Muslims. The public spat among the Left parties in Kerala is similar to what has happened in West Bengal and Tripura a decade and half back and that ultimately lead to the decimation of the Left in those States and the same fate may be waiting for the Left for Kerala in the near future.
The most telling reactions of minority leaders is in the public domain. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the political outfit of Muslims, Chief Sayyid Sadik Ali Shihab Thangal accused CPM of “often choosing double edged tactics” to win the elections in his interview to Chandrika, the official magazine of the party. The Metropolitan of Jacobyte Syrian Church Geevarghese Mar Coorilos tweeted, “CPM may not benefit, always, on Kit-Politics’ ‘. Both of those religious and political heads have shown the CPM its political tactical face in the mirror. The political tactics of the Left and its big brother CPM, either in Bengal or Tripura, were the same. Run a pro-minority communal campaign by spreading hatred towards the majority Hindu community and at the same time dividing the Hindu society by using the caste card. Till the time their cheap politics got exposed and people realised the designs of Left, the “red run” continued and then Communists were dumped in the political dustbin in Bengal and Tripura. Perhaps the Kerala voters are now gearing to push Left out of its last little ‘red hole’ and throw it in the backwaters of Kerala to be carried by the waves into Arabian Sea.
The IUML called the CPM bluff when it treated the 2024 election of Pinarayi Vijayan’s statements in the Lok Sabha campaign as ‘big jokes’. What Pinarayi Vijayan, the self-declared secular champ CM tried to sell was that Muslims are under threat and they should seek protection under his ‘Red wings,’ obviously ignoring the question whether Kerala’s nearly 27 per cent Muslim population wil be threatened by anyone, however big that group be? Muslims themselves are surprised as the CM, who is entrusted with the constitutional responsibility to protect the citizens, is running the “anti-Muslim campaign” by false threat perception just because his party needs votes was what IUML Chief Thangal wondered. The Pinarayi statement, “If there is no Left, the Muslims would become second class citizens in India” is offensive and for some reasons it missed the Election Commission of India’s eye. It is CPM which is under threat and is fearing the loss of power. Its leader Pinnarayi Vijayan’s statement that Christians, through church, are responsible for Left’s defeat is one more example of the party’s communal mindset. The church leader dubbed the 2021 Assembly victory through the free ration kit distribution in the backdrop of COVID-19. Metropolitan of Jacobite Syriyan Church Geevarghese Mar Coorilos, who held a mirror to the CM saying that CPM should bear in mind that natural disasters will not come that frequently to help their “kit politics”. The CPM CM Vijayan couldn’t stomach the factual criticism of the church head and asserted that “these ignorant church minds are responsible for the defeat of the Left in 2024. It is now clear that both Muslims and Christians have understood the negative politics of LDF and more specifically CPM and moved out of the ‘red influence’. The Church head, in his hard hitting Facebook post, talked about the strong anti-incumbency that led to the Left defeat in Kerala and politely asked the CPM CM Vijayan not to be in denial mode. The church head cited the Government’s flawed policies, extravaganza, corruption cases, pension defaults and other efforts to appease communal organisations, flawed policy strategies, media hunting, corruption within the cooperative sector, political violence associated with SFI, intolerance to criticism and attempts to appease religious and communal groups beyond reasonable limits. The final warning the church leader gave was “Left Front will soon be wiped out like in West Bengal and Tripura it didn’t learn from the shock treatments given by the Kerala voter”.
Wooing Minorities, Alienating Hindus
The appeasement of minorities in the name of secularism to gain political advantage angered the Hindu community. Left’s pseudo-secular policies over the years hurt the majority community and that pent up feelings of Hindus is now ventilated through different ways. SNDP Yogam general secretary and leader of powerful Ezhava community Vellapally Nateshan blamed Pinarayi Vijayan’s arrogance as one of the main reasons for the loss of the Left Front. He accused him of “going out of the way to woo the minority community” thus leading to the alienation of many sections of the Hindus. Not only Left lost the confidence of Muslims whom it pampers, the Church and Hindus but the current CM Pinarayi Vijayan is targeted by the Left partners. The CPI cited “the arrogance of Pinarayi and his autocratic style of functioning, his behaviour unbecoming of people’s leader and his actions and words which are turning people hostile is cited as the reason for the unpopularity of Left in Kerala. The preferential treatment given to son-in-law cum ministerial colleague Mohammed Riyas is termed as nepotism which is resulting in corrupt practices involving Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena.
Senior CPI leader C. Divakaran also called for an introspection in the LDF and recommended timely changes in the leadership. The voices for the resignation of the CM Vijayan is sure to go louder as the Left partners are worried about their political future under the Vijayan’s leadership. On the other hand Vijayan now deeply mired in corrupt practices including the gold smuggling case, trying to protect himself and his family to erase the evidences available with the investigating authorities may not be ready to step down at this point of time. Such a surrender is a political doom for his long career. But the unfolding activities both by the central investigating agencies into the coast based smuggling of gold with the connivance of higher ups and Left parties revolt against CPM is sure to dry up the little red oasis called Kerala. It may not be too late for the prophetic words of Church Metropolitan words of Kerala Left meeting the same fate as that of Bengal and Tripura.
