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CPI-M leader attacks Nair community in Kerala

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Close on the heels of the missile fired by noted Malayalam writer Sukumar Azhikode against the leaders of the Ezhava community, a Left intellectual has raked up communal passions among the Nairs, another dominant Hindu community, by questioning their secular credentials.

While Azhikode targeted leaders by terming them as unscrupulous liquor barons defiling the sanctity of the Ezhava movement, Communist Party of India-Marxist ideologue P Govinda Pillai, has struck against Nair leader Mannath Padmanabhan by calling him a "communally poisonous serpent."

The attack on the leaders of the two dominant Hindu communities by the two Left intellectuals have aroused passions in both communities, leading to angry reactions from senior leaders. What forced the Left camp to hurt the two communities at a time when the CPI-M is trying to woo them into the fold is a mystery.

The leaders of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam and the Nair Service Society, the socio-cultural organisations of the Ezhavas and Nairs respectively, are not willing to dismiss the attacks as innocent outbursts. SNDP president Vellappally Natesan believes that Azhikode's resignation as the chairman of the advisory committee attached to the Sree Naryana Dharma Sangham Trust along with its administrator Dr M Sharangadharan was prompted by charges of sexual exploitation and financial embezzlement levelled against some members of the Trust administration.

Azhikode had mentioned the presence of liquor barons in the Sivagiri mutt, which serves as the headquarters of various socio-cultural organisations founded by Sree Narayana Guru, a noted social reformer and the spiritual head of the Ezhavas, as the reason for his resignation. He had given a clarion call to liberate the mutt from the clutches of the liquor lobby.

The NSS leaders feel the attack against their leader has been prompted by the equi-distance policy they adopted in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election. The CPI-M had been trying to build bridges with the powerful NSS leadership after they pulled out their political outfit, the National Democratic Party, from the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

Incidentally, the NDP pullout was prompted by the alleged consecration of Mannam Samadhi by the Congress during the visit of the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao in 1996.

The NSS leaders do not think that Govinda Pillai, who has been striving to fill the intellectual vacuum created by the death of E M S Nampoodiripad, unleashed the attack against Mannam without the knowledge of the CPI-M leadership. Pillai had castigated the founder-leader of the NSS while discussing the Nair and Christian alignment against the E M S ministry of 1957 in the CPI-M organ, Deshabhimani, edited by politburo member and Left Democratic Front convenor V S Achutanandan.

NSS general secretary P K Narayana Panickar targeted both Pillai and the CPI-M in his counter-attack. He asked whether it was Mannath Padmanabhan Pillai, who shunned his caste surname or Govinda Pillai, who still "wags his casteist tail".

The former had shunned his surname as a symbolic gesture to affirm his unbounded commitment to the welfare of human society.

Panickar reminded Pillai that besides "communal organisations", many political outfits like the Revolutionary Socialist Party, now part of the LDF, had associated with the liberation struggle.

As regards the CPI-M, Panickar wondered how it could question the secular credential of anybody when it appeases casteism for retaining power and exploit it during the election and selection of candidates.

The SNDP leaders say the motive behind the resignation of Azhikode and Saranghadharan would come to light when the charges levelled against the Trust administration are inquired into.

Azhikode had said that he had resigned due to the presence of liquor barons like SNDP president Vellapally Natesan in the Trust. The SNDP president, however, said that this was just a pretext. The real attempt is to seek anticipatory bail against highly damaging charges, he claimed.

"I am not hurt by Azhikode's attack as it was nothing new for the SNDP, which has a history of eminent leaders like R Sankar and Kumaran Asan being hurt by members," he said and added that he would continue with his style of functioning.

He termed Azhikode as a tool in the hands of someone trying to destroy the increasing strength of the SNDP movement.

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