In the ongoing fight with the Nair Service Society, CPI (M) State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that the NSS is plotting to unite both the RSS and Congress against the CPI(M) in many constituencies.
In an article published on Sunday in the CPI(M) mouthpiece Deshabhimani Daily, Kodiyeri wrote, "The intervening of NSS in the issue of Sabarimala is with political aim to create an alliance against the Left. For this, the NSS is trying to use faith as a shield. Which side would the NSS join when the BJP and the Congress contest in the same constituency, in the name of protection of custom?” The article is titled, ‘To be Cautious about Unholy Moves.’
NSS is a community organisation representing dominant class Nair caste in the state.
He noted that while both the Congress and BJP had initially accepted the Sabarimala verdict, they later changed their stance and followed the views of community organisations.
“The Congress and the BJP had at first welcomed the Supreme Court verdict in the Sabarimala issue. But it was only after a community organisation made a group of women came out against it with napajapa (chanting of napas) that both the Congress and the RSS conceived the plan to weaken the Left by keeping the NSS with them.”
Kodiyeri says that the NSS leadership has taken similar stands in the past, including playing a major role in the “liberation struggle against the Communist government in 1957.”
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“The approach taken by lining up community and religious organisations was to protect regressive interests. Whenever there was a fight between the conservative and the progressive forces, NSS had always stood with the conservative side after the time of their leader Mannath Padmanabhan,” the article in the Janapakasham Idathupaksham column reads.
“Only if such unholy moves are exposed, the big danger that is about to come can be dealt with," he writes. On Friday, he said that the party doesn't need to go after feudal people, targeting the NSS.
"The feudal attitude should be kept in their mind only. The dominant caste have the attitude that others should obey them. But the CPI (M) won't approve that. It is not fair to accept such a stand for the NSS, which is composed of people with various political affinity," he said.
In response, NSS president G Sukumaran Nair said that the culture of NSS didn’t allow him to react. "The statements of Kodiyeri are crossing the limit. It is not fair for anyone to think that anything can be aided solely because they have power. We are not afraid of it," he said.
The verbal spat has continued for months. The rift was exposed after the government moved to implement the Supreme Court verdict on allowing women of all ages to pray at the temple.
The NSS was not invited to the meeting of various social and community organisations convened prior to the Women's Wall by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.