Kerala Minister Sivankutty trolls BJP with 'Edappal Ottam' remark, Facebook post goes viral

Edappal Ottam poster
The poster shared by Kerala's Education Minister V Sivankutty on his Facebook page on Friday.

Kerala Education Minister V Sivankutty has trolled RSS/BJP by adding 'Edappal Ottam' as an adjunct to the official announcement regarding the inauguration of a flyover at Edappal.

A poster of the inauguration to be done by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday that was shared by Sivankutty on Facebook is captioned: "Hereafter Edappal Ottam over the flyover".

The poster features a youth wearing saffron shawl running over the flyover.

The reference is to an incident from January 2019 at Edappal in Malappuram district during a hartal organised by the Sabarimala Karma Samithi that had met with resistance from the public.

The hartal supporters allegedly comprising Sangh Parivar activists had organised a bike rally protesting the entry of women of menstruating age to the Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa Temple.

Videos of the incident that went viral showed hartal supporters fleeing when confronted by the public. Bikes were abandoned by those who fled.

Pro-left users on social media had mocked the incident by labelling it 'Edappal Ottam' (Edappal run).

However, it is arguably the first time that a state minister has used the 'Edappal Ottam' reference to promote a public function. The post went viral as within an hour it was shared over 650 times.

While a majority of the comments found the post to be funny, some rated it as distasteful. "Maintain the standard of a minister. Feel ashamed that you are the education minister," wrote a user.

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