KOZHIKODE: A group of aggrieved members of the Nair community in Malabar has launched a parallel outfit - Malabar Nair Samajam (MNS) - accusing the Nair Service Society (NSS) leadership of being ineffective in empowering the community as a force to be reckoned with in the current social scenario. Having formed an ad hoc committee after its first meeting held in Kozhikode on April 27, the MNS leadership is now engaged in framing a bylaw for the organisation, which aims to look after Nairs, from Palakkad to Kasargod districts.
Says Advocate P T S Unni, general secretary of MNS and president of the Calicut Chamber of Commerce and Industry: “While other communities are gaining all the benefits by evolving as a votebank, the members of the Nair community are always given a raw deal by the successive governments. This has exposed the ineffectiveness and inability of the NSS.”
A former office-bearer of the NSS, Unni said the successive NSS leaderships were unable to set up even a single educational institution over the past three decades despite possessing a vast amount of property in Malabar region. He added that the MNS would not associate itself with other rebel Nair outfits in the state. “The welfare of the Nairs of Malabar will be the only agenda of the MNS,” he said.
Criticising the ‘equi-distance’ policy as well as the ‘right distance’ approach of the NSS, Unni alleged that its leadership completely failed to understand the pulse of the members during elections. “When defects are pointed out, the leadership shows impudence. In total, the situation is such that the leadership is turning into a bane to the whole Nair society,” he said.
Responding to the development, NSS president P N Narendranathan Nair strongly refuted the allegations and raised sharp criticism against the move. “Such attempts to set up and maintain parallel outfits will not succeed. Earlier also, a few organisations sprouted in a similar way criticising and questioning the effectiveness of the NSS leadership.
However, when looked into the matter deeply, we came to know that those were sudden outbursts of petty issues. If they are 100 per cent sincere and raise issues of the community with 100 per cent legitimacy, the NSS leadership is ready for talks,” he said. Stating that the NSS leadership was working with composure, the NSS president doubted whether those people were really aware of the fundamental problems being faced by the community.
“The unscientific reservation system is our main issue and it is badly affecting the education and job prospects of the youths from the Nair as well as the Namboothiri communities. Do they have a solution to this problem? Opening educational institutions including medical colleges in the unaided sector is possible but managing the same is a humongous task,” Narendranathan said. The MNS is planning to conduct regional conventions in six districts of Malabar during the Onam season.