THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In an apparent attempt to scuttle CPI(M) and Left government’s move to appropriate Ezhava community patron saint Sree Narayana Guru, the BJP has stated that the social reformer was a Hindu sannyasi. The move is seen as a counter to the CPI(M) and Left government’s campaigns based on Sree Narayana Guru’s visions.
The Ezhava community accounts for nearly 23 per cent of Kerala’s total population. In the last Assembly elections, the community, traditionally a Left vote bank, had allied with the BJP through the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena, a political outfit floated by Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam chief Vellappally Natesan, pushing up its vote tally. It was an official Facebook post by the BJP state unit last week on the occasion of Sree Narayana Jayanthi that kicked up the political row. The saffron party urged to resist any move to appropriate the spiritual leader.
“Gurudevan who renovated the Hindu dharma by eradicating the wrong doings is the biggest revolutionary that Kerala has ever seen. His actions are a lesson for today’s pseudo-reformists who are willing to reject their own culture in the name of modernism,” says the post.
Taking a dig at the Left which has been running the ‘Namukku Jathiyilla’ campaign, the Facebook post attacks the attempts to appropriate the spiritual leader. “It’s noticeable that those who are now trying to appropriate guru after his teachings becoming popular are the same one who had once ridiculed him. Any attempts to distort guru’s teachings should be opposed,” says the post.
The Facebook post also pointed out that when Kozhikode first hosted the national conference of Janasangham in Kerala, the conference venue was named after Sree Narayana Guru. At the 50th anniversary of that conference, Kozhikode is going to host another national council.