To take on BJP’s push in Kerala, the CPM has been forced to talk about religion in the latest issue of its mouthpiece ‘People’s Democracy‘.
New Delhi: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s efforts to make meaningful inroads into Kerala gain momentum, the atheist Left has been forced to confront an uncomfortable issue it has always been reluctant to face — religion.
The mounting controversy around the Supreme Court’s decision to allow women of all age groups to enter the Sabarimala temple and the ensuing protests have further pushed the ruling Left dispensation to face a factor its politics has been devoid of.
In the latest issue of its mouthpiece People’s Democracy, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), was forced not just to talk about religion, but also to change tack from its belief in class identity to caste identity in order to take on BJP’s religious push.
The piece in People’s Democracy also said the party has decided to organise a statewide campaign explaining the stand of the state government on the issue.
While Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan-led government has maintained it will not file a review petition in the apex court, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) that manages the temple, and is headed by CPM leader A. Padmakumar, has now indicated it is ready for a “climbdown”.
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This, however, is hardly the first instance in recent times where the Left in Kerala has come face to face with the issue. It often flirts with Hindutva in its own way.
‘Infiltration of RSS’
In the piece in People’s Democracy, S. Ramachandran Pillai, CPM politburo member and senior leader from Kerala, wrote, “The positive steps of the LDF government in appointing dalits as priests in temples in Kerala, expanding the quota for backward classes, dalits and adivasis in appointments to Devaswom Board, got great appreciation among all progressive and democratic sections of people.
“The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) has been working in Kerala for more than seven or eight decades and has been trying to revive all sorts of obscurantist and superstitious practices and customs. They infiltrated into hundreds of temple committees and became active in temple festivals and other religious functions,” added Pillai.
Even as the CPM said there is “no question of going back to the old days”, it obviously feels cornered by the BJP and so, underlines the need to explain its stance to the people.
“The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Left Democratic Front have decided to organise a statewide campaign explaining the stand of the LDF and the government on this issue,” said the party mouthpiece.
Electoral politics
In the Communist worldview, the only identity that exists is that of class, not of caste or religion. Ignoring the latter two and failing to adapt to changing socio-political circumstances has meant the Left has been left far behind in the electoral race in the country.
Kerala, the CPM-led Left’s last remaining fortress, has seen the BJP make some headway in the last few years, making the former deeply uncomfortable given its only rival there has been the Congress.
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In the 2016 assembly elections, O. Rajagopal became the first BJP candidate to win an assembly seat in the state.
The Sabarimala issue, therefore, has raised uncomfortable questions for the Left with the BJP/RSS in the state seeing an opportunity to consolidate Hindu votes and gain electorally.
Religious counter
In the last few years, the party has also organised Janmashtami celebrations, holding marches of its own on Sri Krishna Jayanti, to counter the Sangh Parivar’s processions which have been gaining popularity.
Even more surprisingly, the atheist party decided to “back” a series of initiatives by a group of Sanskrit scholars and cultural organisations during the Ramayana month in the state in July-August this year.
While the CPM denied the party or the government headed by it were officially observing the Ramanaya month, it did admit it was backing efforts by a group of intellectuals to do so in order to offer a “counter-narrative to the BJP/RSS religious propaganda”.
The CPM currently boasts of merely nine seats in the Lok Sabha, of which five are from Kerala. The party will hardly want to cede any space to the BJP given the 2019 polls are due in a few months and Kerala remains the only state it has a hold over.
Tellingly, the senior CPM leader ended his piece by saying the battle will help Left reach “newer section”, given it has never quite explored the Hindutva side of politics.
“The Party is confident that the ideological battle on this issue will provide new opportunities for the Party and the Left to reach newer sections. The present challenges will provide new opportunities for the Left to advance,” added the piece.
It is strange that when Communism is all but dead and buried in all parts of the world it is alive and well in Kerala where it raises its ugly Stalinist head every five years thanks to a people who have no other choice. The Congress which alternates with the Communists every five years is corrupt to the core; however the Communists are only a little less so. Marxian economics may be still valid and a re-look at it is going on as a result of the ravages of capitalism. I do not see any light at the end of the tunnel for the common people who have become inured to the depradations of these two parties.