A mere expression of regret by the editor-in-chief of Muslim League’s mouthpiece Chandrika on a derogatory article, which appeared in the daily’s Sunday edition, against NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair and the Nair community is not going to put an end to the controversy.
On Tuesday, Sukumaran Nair told mediapersons at the Perunna NSS headquarters here that expressing regret in the matter could not be a solution for the insult meted out to the NSS, its founder leader Mannath Padmanabhan, the Nair community and Nair himself. He said High Court lawyer and BJP state leader P Sreedharan Pillai had sent a legal notice to the daily on the controversial article and the NSS would decide on how to go about the matter after getting the reply to the legal notice. “Pillai is an eminent lawyer and an NSS member. Hence he has been made the legal adviser of the NSS in this issue,” he said.
“The statements made by League leaders over the controversial article do not deserve a reply from the NSS. I am reiterating that there has been a ploy by certain persons and the publication of the article was clearly intentional. The NSS sees the article as an attack on the entire Nair community,” he said.
He also stood by his earlier stand that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is a communalist. “A leader like Mannam has been insulted by the newspaper, yet the CM is not commenting anything on the issue. That reflects his communal stand,” he said.
“Leaders like Mannam have always upheld the policy of showing maximum resistance and tolerance. Following the same principles, the NSS is handling this tense situation, which has every chance to snowball into a major communal issue, with the utmost patience,” he said.