A tableau which showed Sree Narayana Guru being crucified was featured in a procession organised by CPM on Sri Krishna Jayanthi in Kannur. Photo: Onmanorama The Onam celebrations of the CPM on the Sri Krishna Jayanthi day, the contradictions in the mode of the festivities and allied developments have turned out to be a headache for the party in Kerala. The allegation that the CPM celebrations have defamed Sree Narayana Guru are being deemed like adding insult to injury.
The row was triggered by the celebrations held at the behest of Balasangham, the children’s wing of the CPM. Though not directly involved, now it has become the responsibility of the party to offer an explanation for the allegations. Even while explaining that the procession was organised to mark the end of the Onam festivities, the CPM had chosen the Sri Krishna Jayanthi day itself for organising the celebrations.
Children dressed up like Lord Krishna dominated the procession. This has paved the way for serious discussions. The CPM, which justifies itself by saying that selecting the particular day was as a coincidence, also clarifies that the public space cannot be left out entirely to the RSS and the BJP on the Sri Krishna Jayanthi day.
The next question that arises is about the dominance of children dressed as Lord Krishna in the procession organised to mark the end of the Onam celebrations. CPM State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan says that it was a local decision and would be examined too.
Children dressed as Lord Krishna and Radha lined up along with a cutout of late CPM leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad in a procession arranged by co-ordination committees of CPM's subdiary organisations at Pinarayi in Kannur on Sri Krishna Jayanthi. Photo: OnmanoramaThe CPM claims that the celebrations were organised to prevent the attempts of the RSS and the BJP to monopolise and use the Hindu Gods and rituals for their political gains. This is the logical explanation that the CPM has offered for conducting the Onam celebrations. The CPM had all along been accusing the BJP of trying to mix religion with politics. Critics of the party doubt whether the CPM should have adopted similar means to counter such moves of the BJP and the RSS.
Though the party had no such intentions, the criticism and response evoked by the celebrations in the media, especially on the Internet, seeks to give such an impression. And that is posing a major challenge to the CPM.
The CPM had strongly responded to a recent statement of CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran, which was interpreted as abetting majority communalism. In the wake of the recent developments, Kanam Rajendran has raised a poser to the CPM about taking forward revolution and spirituality together.
Lord Krishna being a religious symbol, the party was aware of the lack of reasoning in claiming of organising secular Sri Krishna Jayanthi celebrations. The only benefit the party leadership seems to have achieved is to organise an alternative festival by bringing together people belonging to different communities. But the sheen of the celebrations was drowned in the allegations and the party seems to be caught in its midst.
Since the UDF has a firm grip on the minority vote bank, the CPM leadership does not want to lose its clout on the majority vote bank. The party had been strongly reacting against the BJP Central leadership’s move to gain ground in the State and also the SNDP yogam’s affinity towards such attempts.
The party’s political strategy is to place the SNDP Yogam leadership and Sree Narayana Guru in two opposite poles. But the tableau depicted to symbolise the strategy backfired and became a tool in the hands of the SNDP Yogam for attacking the party.
While Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and V.S. Achuthanandan are admitting the lapse in one voice, Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan is unwilling to accept the apology. He is not ready for a truce either. The CPM is trying to counter it by saying that he is enjoying the support of the RSS. The declaration of the local body elections itself came in the backdrop of the controversy.
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