Lord Ayyappa, the presiding deity of Sabarimala, the holy shrine atop the Western Ghats in Kerala, have succeeded where various organisations and individuals had failed. The Lord has brought all followers of the Hindu dharma together, irrespective of caste, creed and class. There is an unprecedented unity among the Hindus in the State, courtesy crackdown enforced on Ayyappa devotees by the Kerala Police controlled by the Marxists.
Not just implementing the Supreme Court verdict the CPI(M)-led Kerala Government has other intentions. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, an atheist, is on record declared that the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala is a “fantastic commercial and business potential” which could be exploited as a source for minting money. “Instead of the present system of holding poojas once in a month and the festival season of December-January, we should keep the temple doors open throughout the 365 days so that devotees and tourists can visit Sabarimala round-the-year,” Vijayan had told the Travancore Devaswam Board members and his council of ministers immediately after becoming the Chief Minister of the State.
Vijayan cannot be blamed for his approach because the temple’s annual income is about 700 crore which makes it the religious institution one of the highest revenue in India. The Travancore Devaswam Board packed with several members of the CPI(M) offer the party and Vijayan a free run with the money donated by the devotees. We should never forget the fact that Vijayan, son of a poor toddy tapper in the Pinarayi village of Kannur district, is rated as one of the richest politicians in South India with business interests across West Asia. Though a sworn Marxist, who shuns everything capitalistic, Vijayan had no qualms in sending his son and daughter to colleges run by private managers in India and abroad. How he could afford to do so would remain a mystery. Equally intriguing is how he built a palatial house in Pinarayi village. The Marxist volunteers guarding the modern palace will not allow anyone approach the road leading to it. Even aircraft and drones are banned from flying over the region because of ‘security’ reasons.
As on October 25, 2018, the local committee leaders of the CPI(M) has prepared a list of Hindu activists in their localities and has handed over the same to the party leadership which in turn has passed over the same to the police for the unprecedented crackdown on them including filing of cases under non-bailable sections. Vijayan and his cohort Kodiyeri Balakrishnan (the Kerala unit secretary of the party) are under the impression that the crack down on Hindu activists would yield them rich dividends in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the State. They hope that the Christian and Muslim community votes would get consolidated in favour of the CPI(M).
Muslims makes about 29% of the population in Kerala while the Christians 22% making and Hindus hardly about 9% of the total voters. Since the BJP is not a force to reckon in Kerala, the CPI(M) leaders are od the view that moolah lies in the Muslim and Christian votes in the State. Their assessment is that the Hindu votes may get split between the Congress and the BJP making it easy for the Marxists to sweep the elections.
But the Congress in Kerala is caught between deep sea and devil syndrome. The Congress High Command (Rahul and Sonia Gandhi) had issued an order to the Congress leaders in the State to keep off the Sabarimala imbroglio. This is to facilitate the victory of the CPI(M) candidates, because it is an open secret that Sitaram Yechury all India general secretary enjoys a special relation with Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul. “You take Kerala and we take New Delhi,” is the arrangement which has been worked out between Sonia and Sitaram under the patronage of the Chinese Communist Party. No prices for guessing and finding out the reasons behind Rahul Gandhi’s secret parleys with leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. This was the same arrangement which was formalized by the Chinese Communists in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.
The diktat issued by the Gandhi family has dampened the spirit of the Congress leaders in Kerala. But this has come to the advantage of the BJP as the powerful Eezhava and Nair communities have buried their hatchet for the time being and have come together to fight to protect the traditions and customs of Sabarimala. The only question being asked is how long this camaraderie between the eternal rivals would last. Though there was a strong belief prior to the 2004 Lok Sabha election that the Eezhavas (lead by Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yoga, the umbrella organisation of the community) and the Nairs (the upper caste among the two) would come together to form a Hindu vote bank, the dreams shattered even before it could be discussed due to the ego and one-up-manship between the leaders.
If the new found Hindu unity sustains till the Lok Sabha election it would seal the fate of many CPI(M) and Congress candidates in Kerala, while the BJP may be able to have the last laugh. An interesting development which went unnoticed during the recent incidents in Sabarimala was the fact that not a single woman devotee in the 10 to 50 age group made it to the shrine despite the court order. Those who tried to gatecrash into the temple premises where the likes of Fatima Rehana and Sweety Mary, about whom the less said is better.
But there are many ifs and buts to make this new found Hindu unity a reality. There is a sense of alienation among the Hindus of Kerala. Some of the recent events in the State give credence to the fears that in their over enthusiasm to appease the minorities, the CPI(M) and Congress are bending in wrong direction. The arrest of former Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulackel, who is alleged to have raped 18 nuns, is a proof of the Sashtanga Namaskar performed by these parties. In spite of the criminal complaints filed by the victims, it took the Kerala Police more than four months to arrest the accused Bishop. He was treated with kid gloves and the whole arrest and releasing on bail looked more like a comedy show. This was in stark contrast to the physical assault on the Hindu monks and activists who staged demonstrations against the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala.
The Kerala Government also saved a Christian pastor who sexually molested and impregnated a young girl last year. Both these incidents literally shocked the Kerala society which saw the nuns coming out and staging fast unto death forcing the police to arrest the bishop. Kerala is also facing the strange phenomenon of Love Jihad, perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalist organisations by selectively targeting Hindu girls from professional colleges under the pretext of loving them and getting them converted to Islam. All these girls end up as sex slaves in Syria and Afghanitan where they are commercially traded by the dreaded Islamic State.
The CPI(M) has set its eyes on the famous Lord Padmanabha Swamy Temple, as the next target because the value of the temple treasures are estimated to be above Rs 5 lakh crore mark. The Marxist dominated media in Kerala is acting as the loudspeakers of their paymasters in AKG Centre (the CPI(M) headquarters) by repeating the lies and unsubstantiated claims made by the party leadership.
Author: Sushma Kumar, Kerala
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