Kerala in a league of its own

In a highly significant political development, which could alter the contours of Kerala politics, the Nair Service Society (NSS) and the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam have decided to bury the hatchet and up the ante against the Congress-led United Front (UDF) Government in the state.

The hardening of the NSS and SNDP stance is a direct sequel to the Oommen Chandy government’s policy of unabashed minority appeasement and total surrender to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second largest constituent of the UDF, in policy matters.

The latest manifestation of their anger against the government  came in the Neyyattinkara by-election , which saw an astounding  five-fold increase in the vote share of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – from a mere 6000 odd votes in the 2011 state assembly elections to over 30,000 votes in the by-election. A clear mandate by the voters to the ruling government.

To put things in prespective a little background. Panakkad is an obscure village deep in the bowels of Malappuram, Kerala’s only Muslim-majority district. In September, Kerala state government will showcase 22 proposed projects here, totalling an investment of Rs 2,000 crores. Reason? Panakkad houses the most prominent spiritual leaders of Kerala’s Muslims and that is where the president of the Muslim league hails from.

League an ally in the ruling United Democratic Front(UDF)  who holds 20 seats in the Kerala assembly, and excercises almost total control over Kerala’s Muslims, the state’s second largest community with 25% of the population. Empowered by the community’s economic and demographic growth, the League has grown steadily in strength. Muslims are the largest beneficiaries of foreign remittances, that totalled Rs 50,000 crores in 2011 according to a study, sent by its two-million strong diaspora in the Gulf. According to the 2001 census, while Hindu and Christian populations showed a decline, by 1.48 per cent and 0.32 per cent respectively, the Muslim population went up by 1.7 per cent.

League has wrested several privileges from the present government: Five cabinet berths, free land in the Calicut University campus, special privileges for Muslim management schools, and Muslims recruited to raise awareness about little known minority scholarships in the community. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has faced much flak from all around-including his own party-for succumbing to the League’s pressures. Keeping their differences apart, the Nair Service Society (NSS) which represents Kerala’s 14 per cent upper caste Nairs, and Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), which represents the state’s largest Hindu block of 24 per cent of Other Backward Caste (OBC) Ezhavas, have decided to jointly fight this ‘appeasement’.

While NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair and SNDP general secretary Vellappalli Natesan are up in arms against the government, many groups within Kerala’s prosperous Christian community are also peeved at what they say is a Muslim monopoly of privileges meant for both minorities.

There are critics in the league within Muslims too. New Muslim organisations such as Popular Front of India (PFI) and Jamaat-e-Eslami which the League calls “extremists”  are weaning young men from them and eroding their claim as the sole representative of Muslims.

But why is there a new consolidation on caste and religious lines? Many blame it on “appeasement” by political parties. Both Congress and Left now choose candidates by caste and religion. Many cites the growth of a “parasitic” middleclass, that shows all signs of modernity but has a feudal mindset.

Interestingly NSS and SNDP have always had differences about reservation. Both the organizations have vowed that they will not ally with BJP who could not find a foothold in the state. It is also worth noting that neither of the community had any legacy to claim for the development of the state. How many would recall, in order to enter politics the NSS briefly formed National Democratic Party in the1970s and not to be left out, in 1972 SNDP formed the Social Revolutionary Party. Sadly, neither parties could make an impact in the Kerala political front.

Many view that owing to contradictions within the communities, the consoldiation will soon collapse. Just as the moderate League and the militant PFI will not be together, Nairs and Ezhavas will fall out over reservations. Let us wait and watch.