Vote bank politics comes to the fore even as communal venom spills over in Kerala

New Delhi: Is Kerala, which used to hold a high moral ground when it comes to communal harmony, slowly turning into a fertile ground for disharmony and hate speech? This question is now foremost in the minds of many after the southern state witnessed a spate of communal venom spitting in the past fortnight. This comes in the backdrop of a crucial by-election and hence has become handy for political parties to capitalise on the communal divide that is raising its ugly head in the state.
A Christian politician who is known for his acerbic comments against rivals in particular and women in general and a political outfit openly advocating secession and setting up of an Islamic state have added spice to an otherwise normal Assembly by-election—Thrikkakara in central Kerala—that has now become a prestige contest for the ruling Left Front and the opposition United Democratic Front.
The politician in question is P C George, a six-time MLA. Basically a disruptor, George is outspoken, had his stints with various factions of the Church-backed regional outfit Kerala Congress and now runs his own one-man show Kerala Janapaksham (Secular). There is hardly anything ‘secular’ about his outfit is another matter altogether.
A fortnight back, at the Ananthapuri Hindu Maha Sammelan, a Sangh Parivar event inaugurated by State Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, George called for a boycott of eateries run by Muslims as they use “some kind of drops” that can cause impotence. He also talked of ‘love Jihad’ and “an agenda to establish a Muslim country” by “sterilising men and women (of other faith)”. He said Muslims were trying to increase their population while Hindu and Christian women were reluctant to give birth to more babies. “Both Hindu and Christian women should beget at least four babies. Whenever I attend a marriage (obviously non-Muslim) I tell the newly married couple this.”
At the event, George also repeated his earlier allegation that Muslims spit on food three times. “Why should we eat their spit? Their scholars say spit is perfume,” he alleged. Significantly, George got a rousing reception at the Sammelan with the crowd appreciating each and every comment of his. It should also be noted that the five-day Sammelan coincided with the last Friday of the Holy Month of Ramzan.
A week later, in Alappuzha, at a mass rally organised by SDPI, the political front for Muslim militant organisation Popular Front of India, provocative slogans were raised against both Hindus and Christians. Interestingly, the procession was organised to protect the unity of the Republic.
But what was most disturbing were certain videos circulated a day after the rally. The video clips show a young boy sitting on the shoulder of a man, perhaps his father, chanting the most alarming lines, which roughly translated can mean death threats to those belonging to both Hindu and Christian religious communities.
In both cases, Marxist strongman and so-called upholder of secularism, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s police force was late to react. And when the force finally acted, it was yet another farcical drama. It arrested George from his house in central Kerala amidst high drama and drove him all the way to state capital Thiruvananthapuram, on the way stopping liberally for George’s new-found supporters of the Sangh Parivar to garland and cheer him. But Pinarayi’s government conveniently forgot to ask its public prosecutor to be present at the magistrate’s house.
The end result was George getting bail and repeated the same charges against the Muslim community to waiting media contingent. Nothing great happened to George. Only he was re-arrested and spent a day in Poojappura central jail in Thiruvananthapuram. A free bird, George has now threatened to go to Thrikkakara to campaign for the BJP candidate there. “I will give Pinarayi Vijayan my reply then,” George told reports ominously on Friday.
Only last December, Alappuzha had witnessed the ghastly murder of a SDPI supporter and the retaliatory murder of a BJP activist, the arrests for which are still going on. Still, Pinarayi Vijayan’s police allowed the Sangh Parivar to take out a procession, some say not given permission, in the morning and a SDPI rally, which had the permission, in the evening in the very same Alappuzha town. And, believe it or not, for two days till the controversial video surfaced, the police apparently were in the dark about the provocative slogans raised during that procession. After the public outcry, some perfunctory arrests have been carried out. The matter is going to end there.
The Left Front government is busy trying to complete a century of members in the Assembly with the by-election. The Front now has 99 members in the 140 strong Assembly. Both Christian and Muslim votes are crucial for the ruling dispensation. It has ‘wisely’ chosen a candidate from the minority Latin Christian community, the largest minority community in the constiutency, but also needs Muslim votes to win the election. Thereby hangs a tale in Kerala’s “secular politics”.