Outfits of two major Hindu communities in Kerala, which together constitute 41 per cent of the total population of the State, have showered praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP over the formation of the NDA Government, giving jitters to both the Congress-led ruling UDF and the CPI(M)-headed Opposition lDF.
The Nair Service Society (NSS), outfit of the Hindu upper caste Nairs, and Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), organisation of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas, have praised the BJP and Modi through the editorials of their respective official journals, Service and Yoga Nadam. Both the magazines have carried Modi’s pictures on their front covers as well.
The development has caused anxiety among the Congress as well as the CPI(M) which have always competed to woo the two highly influential outfits. The NSS has been claiming to have a policy of keeping ‘equidistance’ (Samadooram) to all political parties but is generally known for its proximity to the Congress-led UDF.
The SNDP, currently led by its outspoken general secretary Vellappally Natesan, an industrialist, has been supporting both the UDF and the left. Also, it is generally believed that majority of Ezhavas are left supporters. Nairs constitute 16 per cent and 25 per cent of Kerala population respectively.
“There was an expectation behind the equidistance policy this time: That there would be a change in the Central administration and that the State rule should become more stable. That expectation has got fulfilled. The NDA came to power at the Centre with a huge majority,” NSS journal service says in its editorial.
Along with this, the administration in Kerala became a lot more stable as a by-election could be avoided (as the ruling UDF got more seats than the left in the lS polls), the NSS journal says. It describes the BJP’s victory in the lS polls under Modi’s leadership as a victory of the people.
The Yoga Nadam editorial titled “Modi’s First Goal”, written by the SNDP chief himself, starts by congratulating the Prime Minister and the NDA for scoring the first goal even before the start of administration by bringing the SAARC heads of State including the Pakistani Prime Minister and Sri lankan President for Modi’s swearing-in ceremony.
The SNDP journal also says that Modi had faced the worst kind of political campaigns from opponents. The SNDP had been showing signs of an effort to get nearer to the BJP from the start of the current year. Natesan had made the introductory speech at a grand Dalit conference in Kochi in February in which Narendra Modi was the chief guest and inaugurator.
Observers say that the praises showered on Modi and the BJP by the two community outfits could be seen as an indication of their resolve to depart from the old habit of supporting either the Congress or the left.
“If that is so, it should worry both the Congress and the left. The Congress have always taken the NSS’s support for granted though Nairs often voted against it. The left will have more reasons to worry as a large chunk of its votes used to come from middle class and upper middle class Hindus,” said a senior journalist of a left-leaning newspaper.
As per independent assessments, the first indications of the prospect of the Marxists losing Hindu votes in a big way had been evident in the 16th lok Sabha election. The CPI(M)’s vote-share had shown a marked dip while that of the BJP had increased from 6.31 percent in the 2009 election to 10.83 percent, observers point out.