How could the CPI(M), which considers dialectical materialism as its guiding philosophy, celebrate the Sri Krishna Jayanti by making children from party families appear in processions dressed like Krishna and RadhaIJ
This question has come up strongly within Kerala’s left with CPI, the second largest party in the CPI(M)-led lDF, raising it openly and elements within the CPI(M)’s feeder outfits like the DYFI secretly questioning the party’s decision to follow the very methods the Sangh Pariwar has been accused of using for countering it.
“Spirituality and revolutionary parties cannot go together. Marxists are guided by the philosophy of dialectical materialism,” State CPI secretary Kanam Rajendran said on Sunday while commenting on the Sri Krishna Jayanti celebrations organised by the CPI(M) in the State, especially in Kannur district, on Saturday.
The Marxists, through the party’s children’s wing Bala Sangham, had held cultural processions on the Sri Krishna Jayanti day at the same time as Shobha Yatras were organised by Hindu children’s outfit Bala Gokulam. However, they claimed that these were processions held to mark the conclusion of Onam celebrations.
Despite this claim, many of these cultural processions effectively turned out to be Marxist Shobha Yatras as children dressed as Krishna, Radha and Gopikas appeared in them. The CPI(M) had held hundreds of such processions across Kerala and 187 processions were held in the politically tense Kannur district alone.
Asked about the appropriateness of Marxists organising such programmes, Kanam Rajendran said that his party, the CPI, would not hold such events. He said he could not say why the CPI(M) had held the Onam-linked cultural processions on the Sri Krishna Jayanti day, adding that it was not proper on his part to speak more about the affairs of another party.
Though all feeder outfits of the CPI(M) had participated in the cultural processions, sources in the DYFI, the Marxist youth wing, said that not all in it were happy about the path being followed by the party in the name of resisting “religious fascism”.
“We are all aware of the threat being posed by the Sangh Pariwar’s religious fascism. We all agree that effective methods should be adopted in the programmes to resist it. But the party theoreticians are unlikely to have a clear answer if you ask them why the party should copy the Sangh Pariwar’s own methods in efforts to resist them,” said a DYFI leader from Kannur. The CPI(M) is facing the charge that it has been holding Hindu religious celebrations — they had earlier celebrated the Ganeshotsav — as part of a strategy to check the large-scale flow of its members and sympathisers from the majority community into the BJP and RSS, especially in Kannur district, known as Kerala’s Marxist capital.
On Sunday, State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan justified the party-held processions on the Sri Krishna Jayanti day by reiterating that these were part of the Onam celebrations and that people belonging to all religions — not just Hindus — had participated in them. ‘Onam is a secular festival,” he said.
“They should be celebrating the Sri Krishna Jayanti in the temples. Instead of that (the RSS and the BJP) are parading children on the streets in the dresses of Sri Krishna and Radha. They are trying to project Sri Krishna as a BJP leader,” Kodiyeri said, adding that the party would examine whether children in its cultural processions on Saturday had dressed like Sri Krishna.
Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan also justified the celebrations the party had held on Saturday. Rejecting the reports that workers and supporters were leaving the CPI(M) in large numbers, Achuthanandan said that such allegations were part of propaganda against the party. He also rejected the charge that the party had been moving away from its basic ideology.