In a show of acute intolerance towards spirituality and spiritual personalities, the cultural forum of the Kerala CPI(M) has turned against popular Malayalam novelist P Valsala for authoring a newspaper article extolling Mata Amritanandamayi for her humanistic and pro-women activities on the occasion of her 64th birthday.
Showing an iron will to resist the attacks from Marxist forum PuKaSa (Purogamana Kala-Sahithya Sangham – Progressive Art and literary Society), Valsala responded by saying, “What Mata Amritanandamayi, who stands by humanity, is doing a leftist duty. The current controversy is meant for settling personal score.”
The controversy started after literary critic EP Rajagopalan, PuKaSa’s district secretary in Kasaragod, threatened to withdraw the preface he had written for Valsala’s book Valsalayude Kathakal in protest against her article extolling Mata Amritanandamayi, known among her disciples fondly as Amma. He described her as a God-woman.
The controversy is over Valsala’s article, Thottunarthan Oru Cheruviral (A little Finger to Invoke), published in a newspaper on September 27, Mata Amritanandamayi’s birthday. The article was published immediately after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Mata’s Ashram in Kollam.
Opposing the description of Mata Amritanandamayi as God-woman, Valsala said that the term reeked of obscenity and it could pollute the Malayalam language itself.
“I have always been a left fellow-traveler. There is no need to juxtapose Narendra Modi visit to the Ashram, the Mata’s birthday and my article. Those who do that are eager to create political formulae. What my critics did not like was the good words I spoke about the Mata in my article,” Valsala said.
Coming down heavily on PuKaSa, Valsala termed it as a forum that did not allow freedom of opinion. It was a platform for fourth rate writers, she was quoted as saying. Valsala said that she did not consider Rajagopalan’s threat to withdraw his preface for her book seriously. “The CPI(M) will weaken itself by protecting such forums and individuals,” she added.
Valsala wrote of Amma: “She (a simple rural girl) found her voice, transformed into her worshippers the men and women who appeared before her. She depended on no magic. Only the path of merciful music and meditation! That was enough. The masks of the vanity-driven fell off amongst the mob. Silently, they waited for a glimpse and word of the Amma.”