Kerala

Renaissance issue: Sukumaran Nair turns against CM

From our online archive

KOTTAYAM: The stand-off between the Nair Service Society (NSS) and the LDF-led state government took a new turn with NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan locking horns over neo-renaissance initiatives.

Responding to an indirect criticism aired by Pinarayi against the NSS leadership, Nair said the CM’s statement was ill-motivated. “If the chief minister had meant the NSS, the organisation turns it down with contempt,” Nair said.

Earlier, Pinarayi had said that leaders of community organisation should not impose their retrogressive thoughts on its members. Pinarayi had also said those who didn’t reform themselves according to the changing times would be nullified.

According to Nair, Pinarayi’s words sounded like a kind of threat that “we are the only apostles of renaissance, everyone should come our way and others would become inconsequential”. “The government had launched discussions over renaissance in connection with the Sabarimala issue. Consequently, savarna - avarna (lower and elite class) divide and forward and backward class classification were triggered. Everyone knows all these are for political gains,” he said.
 

SCROLL FOR NEXT