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Sangh Parivar rattled by Congress bid to rope in Sonia for 'Hindu' fete

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The Sangh Parivar in Kerala is up in arms against the Congress decision to invite its president Sonia Gandhi to inaugurate the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Vaikom Satyagraha. They claim the Satyagraha was essentially a social movement aimed at the liberation of oppressed sections in the Hindu community.

The Sangh Parivar is obviously rattled by the Congress move to hijack the historic movement. They also feel it is quite odd for Sonia, a Christian, to be the chief guest of the commemorative celebrations of a movement led by Hindus for Hindus.

"We will resist the Congress attempt to reap political mileage out of this historic movement -- which paved the way for the eradication of untouchability and the entry of low caste Hindus into temples -- by giving a political colour to it," said state BJP president C K Padmanabhan.

"The movement has nothing to do with the Congress except that it was led by Mahatma Gandhi. The Congress is trying to hijack the movement because Gandhiji led it. Several social movements had taken place in the country as part of the freedom struggle. The Congress cannot incorporate them as its history. The party's history has already degenerated into the history of the Nehru family. We will not allow our Vaikom Satyagraha movement to go that way," Padmanabhan told Rediff On The NeT.

The Congress has already made elaborate arrangements to celebrate the jubilee from March 29 to 31. Sonia is slated to address a public meeting on March 31, which is expected to attract about 200,000 people.

Former finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh will also take part in the function.

As part of the celebrations, the portraits of Mannath Padmanabhan, T K Madhavan, A K Pillai, K P Kesava Menon and Kelappan, who were in the forefront of the movement, would be brought from their respective resting places and unveiled at Vaikom.

But the party may not have a smooth sail even in this regard as the Nair Service Society, the socio-cultural organisation of the Nair community, has refused to allow a portrait rally of Mannath Padmanabhan from his samadhi at Changanacherry. The NSS director has barred Congressmen from entering the samadhi premises.

The Sree Narayanana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, the Ezhava socio-cultural organisation, has also decided to oppose the Congress move to 'politicise' the event. The Ezhavas are the backward toddy tapper caste.

SNDPY general secretary Vellappally Natesan said the Congress, which had always neglected the contributions of their leader T K Madhavan, had no moral right to celebrate the satyagraha's platinum jubilee.

''How can a party, which has not done anything to keep alive the memories of Madhavan, the moving spirit behind the Vaikom movement, honour him now?" he asked. ''What is worse, the foundation stone laid by then prime minister Indira Gandhi for the Vaikom memorial 25 years ago still stands in the Vaikom Ashram premises as a living monument of the Congress's indifference towards such a historic event. We will not co-operate with this politically motivated exercise."

''Only the SNDPY has a moral right to organise the jubilee fete as it was the Ezhavas who waged the struggle,'' says Sangh Parivar ideologue P Parameshwaran. ''The best person to be the chief guest of such a function is President K R Narayanan, a backward community member.''

He reminded that only those who had made a declaration that they were Hindus were allowed to take part in the Satyagraha, as it was aimed at fostering unity in the Hindu community.

"It was quintessentially a movement to reform the Hindu society as envisioned by Hindu reformists like Ramakrishna Paramahamsan and Swami Vivekananda," he said.

However, the Congress views it as a great movement for social reformation led by stalwarts like Mahatma Gandhi. The Congress role in the satyagraha cannot be underestimated by anyone, said state Congress president Thennala Balakrishna Pillai.

Congress leader Vayalar Ravi -- an Ezhava -- dismissed the Sangh Parivar's objection to the Congress decision to celebrate the event as a reflection of the "frustration of caste Hindus over the loss of their social dominance as a result of the satyagraha."

He preferred to term it as a 'human rights movement' and as a 'historic struggle launched by the Congress against communal domination'.

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