An unholy mess: How BJP is using Sabarimala issue to make inroads in Kerala

The protests against Sabarimala verdict have exposed the ingrained obscurantism beneath the veneer of a progressive society and the cynical politics of religion that is at play.

Business Standard : Kerala is under siege like never before in its volatile history. As the state struggles to get back on its feet after the worst floods in a century, it is convulsed in a violent religious campaign that belongs to another time and place. For the saffron brigade, the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the entry of women of all ages into the hilltop temple of Ayyappan in Sabarimala has come as a godsend, the perfect handle to reignite the regressive religious campaign that the RSS-BJP cohort has been pushing for decades in the last Left bastion in the country.

In just three weeks after the SC judgement, Kerala has been reduced to a violent, seething mass of agitators seeking to preserve the status quo at a forest-bound temple that debars women between 10 and 50 years from entering its precincts. From Pandalam, seat of the erstwhile royal family which claims a kinship with the deity, to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, thousands of protesting women, organised by the hydra-headed RSS and various Hindu outfits, have been swarming across the state demanding that the CPM-led Left Democratic Front government file a review petition in the Supreme Court and also issue an ordinance to stop women of the restricted age group from going to Sabarimala. The protests have exposed the ingrained obscurantism beneath the veneer of a progressive society and the cynical politics of religion that is at play.

Coarse, violent language – unheard of in Kerala – is making the headlines as the BJP whips up religious frenzy. Actor Kollam Thulasi shocked listeners as he told an NDA rally in Kollam that women who tried to enter the temple must be ripped in half. For good measure, Thulasi, a known BJP supporter, said one half of the woman should be sent to the chief minister’s office in Thiruvananthapuram and the other half to Delhi. “What we are seeing is a repeat of the Ayodhya madness and north Indian barbarity, both new to our state,” says P Jyothsna, a high school teacher from Irrity.

All of a sudden, the discourse is about “vishwasam” or belief, an odd subject for Kerala where the semantics of dialectic materialism continues to be discussed. The state, however, is a paradox in many ways, a place where religion and rituals fill the calendar while communist governments are voted in regularly. This time though things could change and, possibly, in a lasting way. The frenzied politics of religion that is being played out over Sabarimala is extraordinary and could well tip the balance of power and the fortunes of the three main political formations in the state: the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), the BJP’s NDA and the United Democratic Front of the Congress and its allies which includes the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

It was odd to see the IUML lead a rally, complete with party flags, in Changanassery, Kottayam district, in support of Hindus protesting the opening up of Sabarimala. But there’s a good reason why IUML general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty is openly backing maintenance of status quo at the Ayyappan temple... Read More