Here are the twin setbacks the saffron camp suffered in quick succession in the recent past. First was the stiff opposition from the Sivagiri Mutt to Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam’s (SNDP) move to form an alliance with the BJP.

The message emanating from the resolution passed by the Guru Dharma Prachara Sabha, which controls the Mutt, is loud and clear: Do not drag the name of the Mutt and the sanyasis in an attempt to make political gains.

Evidently, the Mutt, which has had strained relations with the SNDP of late, has not taken kindly to the efforts of SNDP general secretary, Vellappally Natesan to strike an alliance with the BJP, posing as the sole leader of the Ezhava community. Obviously, the Mutt is not favourably disposed to the move for an alliance with the BJP.

The other setback suffered by the BJP has been the stinging rebuff from the Nair Service Society(NSS), the organization of the powerful Nair community. True, the NSS has hailed the move to forge Hindu unity. But in a significant editorial in its mouthpiece, Service, the NSS has ruled out abandoning its secular agenda. “The larger unity of the Hindu community should contribute to strengthen the democratic process, secularism and communal harmony,” the editorial emphasized.

Much to the delight of the secular camp in the State, the editorial further said: “This unity should not be realized through the intervention of any political party, neither it should harm any other community.”

It is against the backdrop of this robust reassertion of its secular agenda, that the NSS’s recent rebuff to Malayalam cinema’s super star Suresh Gopi’s efforts to build bridges of understanding with the NSS has to be viewed. Suresh had tried to hog the limelight by gate-crashing into the venue where the NSS’s ‘Pratinidhi Sabha was having its session. Smelling an attempt to extract political mileage on the part of Gopi, whose proximity to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is well known, NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair had administered a stern rebuke to him. Nair, known for his blunt speaking, told Gopi on his face that it was patently unfair on his part to enter the hall when the NSS delegates’ session was on.

The discomfiture suffered by the BJP was warmly welcomed by the secular camp in the State. First to welcome Nair’s snub to the BJP was CPI(M) state secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. The NSS’s stance, Kodiyeri said in a statement, was not only democratic but also in the larger interests of upholding the secular tradition of the state as well as the country. It was a big relief for the secular camp when the NSS distanced itself from the RSS mission to woo the organization into the saffron camp. Likewise, the Hindutva camp’s attempts to rope in the SNDP will also fail, Kodiyeri asserted, adding that the ideologies of SNDP and NSS are at sharp variance with that of the RSS.

In a significant move, the CPI(M), alarmed by the growing influence of the BJP in the state, has initiated an exercise, in right earnest, to nullify the effects of BJP’s endeavour to have the SNDP in its camp. The main thrust of the CPI(M)’s strategy is to communicate directly with the members of the Ezhava community, the backbone of its voter base.

The CPI(M) fired the first salvo by getting former CPI(M) state secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan to launch a series of articles in the party’s mouthpiece, ‘Deshabhimani’ on the Ezhava identity and the SNDP’s communal agenda. The main thrust of Vijayan’s articles was that while the SNDP has been critical of the CPI(M)’s policies, the Ezhava community has stood solidly behind the party. Vijayan has also rebutted the SNDP’s criticism that the comm. Unity has not benefited from communist governments, by pointing out that Ezhavas were the principal beneficiary of the Land Reforms Act enacted by the EMS Government.

Against this backdrop, the BJP in the state, which is a house divided against itself, will have to work hard to firm up its foothold on the secular soil of the state. It is obviously a tall task for the state party riven by factionalism. (IPA Service)