Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday launched a veiled attack against the BJP for its alleged attempts to woo Hindu lower caste Ezhavas who form over 21 percent of Kerala’s population by stating that attempts were being made by “communal ideologies and individuals” to appropriate the legacy of Sree Narayana Guru, a social reformer from the community.
Inaugurating a public meeting associated with the annual pilgrimage at the Sivagiri Mutt, the spiritual centre established by the Guru at Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram, Sonia said, “There can be no greater betrayal of Sree Narayana
Guru than the attempts being made to capture his legacy by communal ideologies and individuals whose motive is political power by spreading prejudice, bigotry and dividing our diverse society.”
The Congress president’s comments came when the BJP was trying to win the support of Ezhavas by striking an alliance with Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of SNDP Yogam, outfit of the community. The BJP and the Yogam under Vellappally had entered into an informal alliance for the recent local bodies election in the State.
Sonia criticized Vellappally also - without referring to him by name - for his association with the Sangh Pariwar by saying, “It would be complete negation of Sree Narayana Guru’s teachings if it (the SNDP Yogam) pursues political gains by a few of this noble organization and stray from its principles and purposes (as propounded by the Guru).”
The Congress president mentioned the name of late Ezhava leader R Sankar, former general secretary of the Yogam, to claim how caring her party had been towards the community. Praising the Yogam’s role in transforming Kerala, she reminded its present-day leadership that it was the Congress which had made Sankar the State’s chief minister in 1962.
The BJP had come under attack after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a statue of Sankar at the Sree Narayana College in Kollam on December 15 at a programme organized under the alleged supervision of Vellappally. In his speech at the function, Modi had claimed that Sankar was close to Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.
