The 24th Speaker of the Kerala Legislative Assembly, A.N. Shamseer, 46, has seemingly found himself in a peculiarly delicate situation that his predecessors rarely faced. Mr. Shamseer’s appeal to students to enshrine science over a literalist interpretation of religion at a school assembly in his constituency in Kannur in Thalassery last week has triggered a political storm in Kerala.
The controversy, which shows little signs of abating, has seemingly snared the Speaker’s office in its eye. Mr. Shamseer’s take on science and religion made the influential Nair Service Society (NSS) see red.
The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] seemed acutely mindful that the NSS had spearheaded the tempestuous Sabarimala agitation that rocked the first Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2018. It seeks to avoid a similar polarising situation. The NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair, known for his hardline positions on questions of faith, said Mr. Shamseer “wounded Hindu hearts” and his “comments were unbecoming of a Speaker”. Mr. Nair demanded Mr. Shamseer apologise or forswear the Speaker’s chair.
