The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] scrambled to defend itself against a growing chorus of accusations, discomfortingly amplified on social media, that top party leaders broadcast a disdainful view of Hindu beliefs while not daring to question the articles of faith cherished by other religions.
Speaker A.N. Shamseer’s appeal to school students to enshrine science over a literalist interpretation of religion in Kannur last week triggered a political storm that caught the CPI(M) in its eye and showed scarce signs of abating.
Seemingly keen to pre-empt religious passions from roiling State politics, CPI(M) State Secretary M.V. Govindan sought to clarify the party’s position on the debate. Mr. Govindan denied he had dismissed Hindu deities as “myths”. Instead, he had merely asked whether the lore that an avatar created Kerala’s land mass “was empirically confirmed scientific truth”.
It also did not help the CPI(M) that Sivagiri Dharma Sangham Trust (SDST) president Swamy Sachidananda, widely perceived as an important spiritual influencer in the numerically significant backward class Ezhava community, backed Nair Service Society (NSS) general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair’s demand for a public apology from Mr. Shamseer.
The possibility that the Congress would use the Assembly session commencing next week as a bully pulpit to assail Mr. Shamseer reportedly worried the CPI(M).
The government also seemed keen not to provide emotive ammunition to the Sangh Parivar to launch a socially disruptive “defend the faith” campaign on the lines of the tempestuous Sabarimala agitation that rocked the previous Pinarayi Vijayan government in 2018.
Meanwhile, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) triumphantly interpreted Mr. Govindan’s latest take on the debate as a cringing about-face. They also used it as a political prod to goad Mr. Shamseer into apologising publicly.
Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala and Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan urged Mr.Shamseer to take a cue from Mr Govindan’s “belated course correction” and set the “inflammatory dispute” to rest by expressing regret openly.
BJP State president K.Surendran said the party would not settle for anything less than a public apology from Mr. Shamseer and a police case against the Speaker for “hurting” religious sentiment.
