Thiruvananthapuram: The Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM) is now actively reviving a council set up apparently to promote renaissance values.
This move to revitalise the dormant body is apparently aimed at uniting all community organisations ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, though its functionaries claim it has no electoral agenda.
A meeting held this week has decided to reconstitute district committees and extend the activities of the council, named Navodhana Samrakshana Samithi, to panchayath levels.
This time, as many as 70 persons participated in the meeting and they represented bout 38 organisations, including the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), Kerala Pulayar Mahasabha (KPMS) and Kerala Dalit Federation (KDF).
Vellappally Nateshan would participate in the District Committee meetings of the Samithi.
Conference on Aug 15
A conference to be held on the Independence Day, August 15, at Thiruvananthapuram will discuss, among other matters, protection ofconstitutional morals.
Earlier it had championed gender equality in the wake of the protests over the entry of women to Sabarimala temple.
The Samithi’s constitution would also be finalized on the same day.
K Somaprasad, the state president of the Scheduled Caste Welfare Committee and also a State committee member of the CPM, is the Samithi treasurer.
Why the council was formed
When the first Pinarayi Vijayan Government (2016-21) decided to implement the Supreme Court verdict allowing young women’s entry to Sabarimala, a few community groups led by the Nair Service Society had lined up against it.
To counter the same, a few other organisations joined hands and formed a Samithi led by the CPM then. A human chain comprising women was also formed under the leadership of Vellappally Nateshan.
Subsequently, the patrons, including the CPM, were not keen about the council when the protest of the Hindu devotees against the Government and the Left Democratic Front over the entry of women to Sabarimala gained strength.
The leadership meeting of the Samithi was scheduled a few months ago, but the CM had inconvenience in attending the same then. Though the CM told the organisers to conduct the meeting by inviting the Minister for Finance, and the Minister for Welfare Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, they were not willing for the same.
Wisdom Islamic Organisation was the only Muslim entity which took part in the meeting. Though the organisers claim to have the support of the Kandhapuram faction and the Muslim Education Society, there were no representatives present for the meeting. One represented the Christian entities.
New leaders
KPMS leader Punnala Sreekumar, who resigned from the position of the Samithi general secretary and said he would continue as an active member of the Samithi, was not been actively involved in the Samithi, of late.
The rise of KDF president P Ramabhadran, who was the organising secretary, to the post of general secretary is not coincidental. Ramabhadran, who was the executive committee member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), leaned to the Left during the Sabarimala row.
With this, the KDF which used to be with the UDF till then pledged support to the LDF during the Assembly elections.
The second Pinarayi Government appointed Ramabhadran as the chairman of Handicrafts Development Corporation. The council avowedly has no political aims.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan himself had banned poll-related discussions during a meeting of the council during the last general election, said an office-bearer.
