In 1959, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru is said to have asked EMS Namboothirippad, then Kerala Chief Minister heading the world’s first-ever democratically elected communist Government, how he could become so unpopular in so short a period before the Centre dismissed the State Government. At that time, EMS had completed just two years in office.
Kerala’s present Congress-led UDF Government, which had assumed office two years ago, is now facing a similar wave of unpopularity with two major majority community outfits declaring a virtual war on it for its over-dependence on minority communities even as protests are brewing across the State against its track record of alleged bad governance.
Almost a week after he said, “The situation is so bad that the majority communities will have to flee Kerala”, G Sukumaran Nair, general secretary of the Nair Service Society, the outfit of Hindu upper caste Nairs, warned Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Thursday that he should not expect to complete his tenure by antagonising the community.
“Indeed, Chandy is a smart politician and a top Congress leader. But he is of the habit of throwing away like residue anyone after his use is over,” Sukumaran Nair told a TV channel on Thursday. Describing State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala — a Nair by caste — as a betrayer, he said the community trusted nobody in the UDF.
Nair and Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, outfit of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas, had held a joint Press conference last weekend to complain that there was no reason to believe that the majority communities would get justice under the UDF Government which was favouring the minorities in all matters.
The NSS and SNDP had first come out against the UDF Government a year ago when Chandy allotted a fifth Cabinet position to the Muslim league, the second largest constituent of the UDF holding 20 of the 72 seats the front has in the 140-member State Assembly, allegedly derailing the community balance in the Government.
After the resignation of Forest Minister KB Ganesh Kumar over an issue of domestic violence last month, the Kerala Cabinet has a total of 20 members and only eight of them are Hindus, who constitute 56 per cent of the State’s population, while Muslims and Christians constituting 25 per cent and 19 per cent of the population respectively have six Ministers each.
When the attack by the NSS and SNDP against the Government and the Congress party intensified, Chennithala and Chandy had said that the two community outfits had the right to criticise the Government and the UDF and they would settle all outstanding issues with Nair and Natesan through discussions.
But Sukumaran Nair responded negatively to this saying that the offer itself was ridiculous as the problems between the UDF and the majority communities could not be solved that easily. He also questioned the ability of the Congress and the UDF, which were facing intense internal battles, to address the serious grievances of the majority communities.
The NSS, so far considered as a consistent supporter of the UDF, and the SNDP had surprised both the Congress and the left by clearly but indirectly airing support for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of his visit on April 24 to Kerala to take part in a programme at the Sivagiri Mutt, a centre of secular spirituality in Varkala, Thiruvananthapuram.
“Sukumaran Nair’s threat that the UDF would be taught a lesson in the lok Sabha election clearly points to a possibility that the NSS would be voting against the UDF. It could well mark the start of a new kind of alliance in Kerala politics. However, we will somehow find a way to pacify both the NSS and the SNDP,” said a Congress leader close to Chennithala.