Attempt to gag parody song boomerangs on CPM in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala is literally buzz with the Malayalam parody song 'Pottiye Kettiye, Swarnam Chembbayi Mattiye' (Potti was allowed to enter and gold became copper) as the ruling CPM tried to counter the song by initiating a police case against its creators and party leaders openly coming out with statements that the song, which links the CPM with the Sabarimala gold heist, hurts religious sentiments.

The CPM's counter moves sky rocketed the popularity of the song to such a level that even groups of Ayyappa devotees could be heard playing the song and even small children to elderly persons are humming it.

The social media is literally being bombarded with the 'Pottiye Kettiye' parody song in various formats, ranging from raps to classical. The song literally echoed across Kerala the other day with the Congress-led UDF singing it in protest against the police case against it.

If it is Sangh Parivar outfits that often comes out with 'hurting religious sentiments' allegations on such matters, in this case even the Sangh Parivar leaders didn't see any fault with the parody song, which is tuned on the basis of a popular Sabarimala Ayyappa devotional song and those who brought out the song happened to be non-Hindus.

Even as the state police registered a case against the singer, lyricist and producers of the song, in view of the strong criticism that followed the case was learnt to be kept frozen.

The CPM government reportedly directed the police not to take forward the case as well as not to entertain similar complaints. All known socio-cultural personalities of Kerala openly flayed the moves against the song citing that it was a work of creativity.

G P Kunhabdulla Chalappuram, a NRI hailing from Nadapuram in Kozhikode, wrote the song as part of his hobby of penning songs on social issues.

Sung by Danish and produced by Subair Pandalloor and Haneefa Mudikkode, the song became popular during the recent Lok Sabha election campaign as the Congress effectively used it for campaign against the CPM.