The campaigns unleashed by the left and a powerful section in the Congress against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the eve of his April 24 visit to Kerala have failed to achieve the desired result with the Muslim community refusing to bite the bait and several heavyweights in the Congress and its allies defending a State Minister’s meeting with Modi last week.
The leftist-Congress campaign met with failure also because of the unity shown by the State BJP leadership, which has often faced allegations of rampant divisionism, in unleashing a timely counter-offensive against the Gujarat Chief Minister’s critics both in the leftist camps and the Congress party.
The left attacked Modi by saying that his scheduled visit to Kerala on Wednesday to inaugurate a programme at the Sivagiri Mutt, a spiritual centre founded by great social reformer Sree Narayana Guru at Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram district, was part of a conspiracy to turn the secular spiritual centre into a Hindu establishment.
A section of top Congress leaders, including Union Minister Vayalar Ravi, had triggered an anti-Modi campaign by attacking State labour Minister Shibu Baby John of Congress ally RSP(B) for meeting Modi at Ahmedabad last week to discuss development matters and his intention to emulate the Gujarat model of skill development in Kerala.
The ‘Modi-is-untouchable’ campaign was set off by VS Achuthanandan, Opposition leader in the State Assembly and a CPI(M) central committee member, with his declaration on Saturday that he would boycott a programme being organised by the Sree Narayana Dharma Meemamsa Parishad in protest against its act of inviting Modi to inaugurate another of its programmes.
In his intolerance towards the Gujarat Chief Minister, State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan went a step further to accuse the Sanyasis of the Sivagiri Mutt of conspiring to turn the “secular centre of spirituality” based on the “one caste, one religion, one God - for man” principle into an exclusive Hindu establishment. He interpreted the Modi visit as an evidence for this.
“The CPI(M) intention was obviously to use the occasion to its advantage in the context of the coming lok Sabha election by appeasing the Muslims through Modi-baiting. However, I think, the comrades have failed obviously in understanding the changes that have taken place in the society in these 11 years after 2002,” said a former party theorist of the CPI(M).
Vellappally Natesan, the influential general secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, refused to subscribe to the leftist argument by saying, “There is no substance in declaring Modi as an untouchable. He is becoming famous with his work.” The criticisms against Modi were based on political motivations, Vellappally said.
“lK Advani had visited the Mutt sometime ago. These people had shared the stage with him then. These objections were not there. It is up to the Mutt to decide who all should be invited to its programmes. Political parties have no role in that,” he said.
State BJP president V Muraleedharan reminded Pinarayi Vijayan of his own act of sharing a stage with Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Madani during the 2009 lok Sabha election. Former State BJP chiefs PS Sreedharan Pillai and PK Krishnadas and other party leaders joined Muraleedharan in launching a counter-offensive against the CPI(M) over the issue.
The campaign by a section of Congress heavyweights against Modi over Minister Shibu’s meeting with him ended in a fiasco after prominent leaders of the Congress itself and ruling UDF, including Chief Minister Chandy, Power Minister Aryadan Muhammad and Finance Minister KM Mani refused to see anything wrong in that.
Even the Muslim league, Congress’s closest and largest ally in the Government, refused to be drawn into the controversy though some party leaders expressed mild objections to the meeting initially. Senior Muslim league leader PK Kunhalikutty, also the State Industries Minister, said there was nothing wrong in Minister Shibu’s meeting with Modi.