What happened at the the party meeting, held in Kottayam, illustrates the point. First is the manner in which the BJP has acted against the two leaders, former BJP state president and a popular leader from North Kerala, C K Padmanabhan, and party general secretary A N Radhakrishnan.

While the BJP has sought an explanation from Padmanabhan for his ‘critical remarks’ against the party, it has ignored the highly controversial remarks made by Radhakrishnan, known to be close to RSS. As for Padmanabhan, this is not the first time that he has come out with critical remarks against the party and its leadership. That being the case, CKP, as he is popularly known, has always been persona non grata with the dominant RSS leadership. But the tough stance against him and the failure to take any action against Radhakrishnan has not gone down well with at least a section of the State BJP which resents the RSS dominance of the party.

Padmanabhan had incurred RSS wrath for his critical statements in which he castigated Radhakrishnan and others of his ilk for their venomous attacks against litterateur MT Vasudevan Nair and film director Kamal. CKP further angered the RSS camp by deploring Radhakrishnan’s remark that Kamal should leave for Pakistan if he cannot respect the national Anthem. Nobody has the right to ask anyone to go to Pakistan. Such statements show the BJP in a poor light. That was the crux of CKP’s argument. Likewise, the angry outbursts against highly respected MT were uncalled for. MT’s crime: He openly criticized the demonetisation decision terming it as a Tughlakian one.

CKP also frowned upon the attack against Che Guevera and the demand made by Radhakrishnan that the CPI(M) should remove posters of Che flaunted across the state. CKP said those who fume against Che Guevera should go and read the Bolivian Diary to under stand the man and the immense contributions made by him.

A section in the state BJP believes such remarks against cultural icons have affected the party’s image and would nullify the gains the party has made of late. In fact, one of the state BJP general secretaries, Shobha Surendran said Radhakrishnan’s outbursts against MT and Kamal were his personal opinion and that the party had nothing to do with them, baring the sharp division within the BJP itself over the controversy.

To say that the open war of words has only shown the party in poor light is to state the obvious. The tussle between the Sangh supporters and the rest has grown ever since Kummanam Rajashekharan, a prominent RSS pracharak himself, took over as the BJP state president. Significantly, Kummanam, who had initially said the controversy over MT, Kamal and Che Guevera was a closed chapter, had to eat his words and seek an explanation from CKP.

Likewise, the vice-like grip of the RSS is evident from the way in which the state BJP has decided to up the ante against the CPI(M) and the government led by it, Obviously at the RSS behest, the State BJP has decided to launch a series of agitations against the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front(LDF) Government. The agitations are in protest against what the BJP calls the state government’s failure on the food security front and the politics of violence.

The BJP’s decision to take body of a slain party workers in a procession through a road in Police Ground in Kannur, which is the venue of the 57th State School Arts Festival had created tension. The BJP has also decided to take the ashes of a party worker who lost her life in an attack allegedly by the CPI(M) cadres in Palakkad district in two yatras, scheduled to be held in the last week of February.

The BJP is also making a determined effort to win over the Adivasis and Dalits, who according to the party, were suffering because of the neglect by both the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-headed LDF. The services of adivasi leader C K Janu, who has joined the BJP, are being requisitioned to lead the agitation for land for the adivasis.

All these programmes have been chalked out on the directive of the RSS. It is also worth mentioning that a delegation led by state BJP chief Kummanam Rajashekharan met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking immediate steps to end the cycle of violence against the BJP cadres. The state as well as central leaders of the BJP have warned the LDF Government of retaliation elsewhere if the CPI(M) does not stop the violence. This is a clear indication of the RSS-BJP move to whip up tension with the obvious objective of extracting political mileage. The Pinarayi Government has been forewarned. (IPA Service)