Ezhava-Nair unity fails to take off in Kerala as NSS backs out citing SNDP's political intentions

Nair Service Society decision to back out from trying up with the SNDP comes a day after Vellappally Natesan was selected for Padma Bhushan award

Thiruvananthapuram: A move by two prominent Hindu forums in Kerala, Nair Service Society (NSS) and Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP), to join hands has failed in the initial stage itself with the former backing out from the move accusing the latter of having political intentions.

The NSS represents the Nair forward caste, which is the second largest Hindu community in the State. The SNDP represents the Ezhava OBC community, which is the largest Hindu community in the State. While Nair population is estimated to be 12 to 15 per cent of Kerala's population, Ezhava population is estimated to be around 22 to 25 per cent.

The SNDP leadership meeting held on January 21 decided to explore the option of joining hands with the NSS after general secretaries of both the outfits, Vellappally Natesan and G Sukumaran Nair, respectively, expressed their desire for the tie up. Both leaders had also stated that Hindu unity was the need of the hour. 

However, the NSS was unhappy over the SNDP deputing its vice president and Natesan's son Thushar Vellappally to hold discussions with the NSS as Thushar is the president of the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), which is a key coalition partner of the BJP in Kerala.

The NSS general secretary said on Monday that the SNDP's decision to depute Thushar for the talks with the NSS was improper as he is part of the BJP-NDA. He also said that the SNDP leadership seems to be having political intentions in the move to join hands with NSS.

The NSS director board meeting on Monday viewed that in the present political circumstances, NSS-SNDP unity was not practically possible. Hence the NSS decided to back out from the tie-up plans. The NSS will stick to its stand to maintain equidistance with all parties in the coming elections, Sukumaran Nair told reporters.

Natesan reserved his comments, citing that he was not yet aware of the real reasons for the NSS to back out.

Incidentally, the NSS' decision to back out from trying up with the SNDP came a day after Natesan was selected for the Padma Bhushan award.

It is learnt that some Congress leaders played a key role in persuading the NSS leadership to back out from joining hands with the SNDP, especially citing Natesan's vested political interests.

Even as Natesan is openly maintaining a pro-Pinarayi (Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan) stand, his back-to-back statements against the Muslim community were widely interpreted as moves to help the BJP by triggering communalism. To add to it was Natesan's son remaining a key member of the NDA.

For those reasons, the SNDP's initiative to join hands with the NSS triggered speculations that it could benefit the BJP as there had been a drift in the Ezhava votes to the BJP in the last two general elections.

The NSS and the SNDP had joined hands on a couple of occasions earlier also. But those were also short lived especially owing to differences over job reservation. The SNDP often alleges that the Nair community has a higher representation in government services than the Ezhava community.