The BJP's swift move to call a hartal to mark the suicide of a man the party describes an 'ardent Ayyappa bhakt' can mean three things.
One, the BJP is confident that any incident related to Sabariamla, however far-fetched the connection, can now emotionally sway the state's Hindu community. Two, there is an assessment within the Sangh Parivar as a whole that more 'hartals', rather than provoking anger, were bringing it closer to the faithful. And three, the recent loss of the Hindi heartland has been interpreted as a sign to go for broke, to shift to an extreme position.
The new Hindu
The state unit of BJP now feels that they have found their Ayodhya in Sabarimala. If it truly believes this, the party must also be under the impression that the thought of women in Sabarimala has worked like some sort of a mythical intoxicant that has made the Hindus in the state suddenly forgetful of their progressive, secular nature.
It was this amnesiac Hindu that party general secretary M T Ramesh was trying to humour when he called for the hartal on December 13. “There should be no trouble for pilgrims,” he said. “Vehicles carrying Ayyappa devotees should be allowed to move. Under no circumstances should they be put to any kind of difficulties,” he added. As if nothing else mattered to the Hindu; not students writing their examinations, not passengers stranded in railway stations or airports, not even patients rushing to hospitals.
The speed with which the party came out with the call for hartal, without even bothering to be sure why the man had immolated himself, was also revealing. The party has found in the stranger's suicide a minimum guarantee issue. They just had to create a link, and it looks as if a strong one was the last of their concerns.
According to the BJP, the very fact that Venugopalan Nair chose their agitation area in front of the Secretariat to light himself up was proof that he was sending a message about Sabarimala to the Pinarayi Vijayan government. The BJP says the man was heartbroken by the government's moves to destroy Sabarimala. It is another matter that no one, not even close family, had heard him say that.
Later, it was officially claimed that in Venugopalan Nair's dying declaration to the judicial first class magistrate and doctors, there was no mention of Sabarimala. He just said he was fed up with his life. This was but contradicted by Venugopalan Nair's brother who said no one had talked to his dying brother.
Advantage of frequent hartals
Also, there is a thinking within the party that hartals, instead of alienating their potential voters, have created the impression that Sangh Parivar alone was fighting for the devotee. More the hartals, stronger the bond with the faithful. Today's is the sixth 'hartal' called by Sangh Parivar outfits after the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on Sabarimala on September 28.
The first one was on October 7, in protest against the police action against Yuva Morcha activists who marched to the residence of Travancore Devaswom Board president A Padmakumar. A state-level hartal was called on October 18 against police action at Nilakkal the day before the temple opened for the monthly pujas.
The next hartal was on November 2, and it was the first hartal done in the wake of a death. A devotee Sivadasan was found dead under mysterious circumstances inside the forest near Sabarimala. The BJP alleged he died during police action. The next hartal was unique in that no one really knew that such a call has been given. The Sangh Parivar had declared it was a hartal before sunrise on November 17, when most of the state was sleeping. It was to protest the arrest of Hindu Aikya Vedi leader Sasikala at Marakoottam. The sixth hartal was carried out two days ago on December 11, once again to protest police action against Yuva Morcha leaders.
Heartland loss and extreme Hindutva
The third reason why the hartal was called could have something to do with the loss in the Hindi heartland. The failure could have been interpreted as a sign to the Sangh Parivar to go for broke, to shift to an extreme position.
In all the three big states (Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh) where the BJP lost considerably, the campaign was a mix, even if uneven, of development and Hindutva. While the chief ministers of the state spoke of development, star campaigners like Yogi Adithyanath unapologetically played the Hindutva card. Now, sources within the party said the BJP has come to the conclusion that a 'neither here nor there' strategy has its limitations. So, the new motto could be: let's drop all pretensions and stick to undiluted Hindutva.
Venugopalan Nair's death, in a sense, has fast-tracked the implementation of this new electoral strategy. Kerala has become the first state where BJP's no-holds-barred Hindutva has been put to use before the campaign for 2019 gets under way.
