In Kerala under the Communist regime, mocking the respected national icons and political leaders has become a pattern. When questioned, they hide behind the “freedom of expression” curtain, a well-known strategy of Communists to target the very identity and the work done by such national leaders and icons.
It was against this backdrop that a provocative social media post surfaced on April 24, depicting Swami Vivekananda in a derogatory manner alongside Yogi Adityanath on a Facebook post by Pallikkonam Rajeev, the former designer of ‘Balarama’, a children’s comic magazine published by the Malayala Manorama group. He has insulted Swami Vivekananda and Yogi Adityanath, who is also the chief of the Gorakhnath Peeth.
As soon as the post became public, sharp outrage spread across the state. The post, widely condemned for its offensive portrayal, showed Vivekananda as a violent figure attacking the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister—who also heads the Gorakhnath Peeth—thereby targeting both a revered spiritual icon and a Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
Therefore, the designer invited the wrath of nationalists and Hindu believers. They cannot tolerate when two spiritual luminaries are insulted. Perhaps Rajeev understood this, which is why he withdrew the post after a few hours.
Following this outrage, Kochi-based RTI campaigner K. Govindan Nampoothiry has filed a complaint with the Uttar Pradesh government and the Chief Secretary over a hate post targeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Swami Vivekananda.
In his complaint filed on April 25, Nampoothiry sought strict legal action against those who shared the derogatory post, stating that it hurt the sentiments of Hindus. He demanded that the persons responsible be prosecuted under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the IT Act for circulating the offensive content against the UP Chief Minister.
“I have urged the UP Government that the two Facebook accounts concerned be taken down immediately and that necessary legal action be initiated against the individuals at the earliest,” said Govindan Nampoothiry.
Observers believe that this sort of anti-national post is a peculiarity of the Kerala Communist politics. M. F. Husain, the painter infamous for painting obscene pictures of Saraswathi and Durga, was applauded by pseudo-secularists.
In May 2007, the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, led by CPM veteran V. S. Achuthanandan, declared the Raja Ravi Varma Award for M. F. Husain. It was reported to be at the behest of the then education and cultural minister M. A. Baby. The award carried ₹1.25 lakh, a plaque, and a citation. However, it was stayed by the Kerala High Court in September 2007 following several petitions stating that his paintings hurt Hindu sentiments.
M. A. Baby, the current CPM General Secretary, was trying to appease anti-Hindu forces, pseudo-secularists, and his CPM atheist comrades.
Later, college magazines controlled by SFI carried several obscene pictures and caricatures of Hindu Gods and national leaders. They displayed obscene pictures of Hindu Gods on campuses.
In some colleges, they pasted Narendra Modi’s pictures on the floors of compounds and compelled students to kick them. In some places, they hung boxing dummies with Modi’s pictures pasted on them and asked students to punch them.
