A defamatory article on Kerala in the RSS mouthpiece “Organiser” that bases its premise on overstatement and misinformation has triggered a fiery retort from CPM leader and polit bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan.
In the article titled ‘Kerala: God’s own country or Godless country’ that appeared in “Organiser”, the writer – M Surendra Nathan, a Mumbai-based lawyer and lecturer – says there is nothing called “collective consciousness of godliness” amongst the Kerala Hindus.
The writer goes on to say that the state has witnessed the most number of political murders, has the highest suicide rates, divorce rates, highest number of mental ailment cases and live-in relationships. It also slams the state’s educational system and its governments’ policy of minority “appeasement”. “Sporadic political murders are a daily occurrence in the state” says the article that repeatedly dismisses the state’s secular credentials as a product of Left-backed anti-Hindu activism.
Calling the Muslim-dominant northern district of Malappuram a “miniature of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, the writer talks about “realities” that the food preferences of Muslims were “writ large” in the state which “totally engulfed the vegetarianism of Kerala propagated by Hindu saints”. The article reads like the Sangh’s take on Kerala’s angry response to the Delhi Police “raid” in Kerala House in the national capital over alleged serving of cow meat in its canteen.
The article has run into severe criticism from readers on its message board, who pointed out the use of divisive language and the writer’s silence on the state’s high development indices. Pinarayi Vijayan called the article the Sangh Parivar’s battle call against the Keralites.
“The RSS is challenging Kerala’s history and culture,” Vijayan wrote on his official Facebook page. Vijayan listed out inaccuracies in the article – one even involves calling Oommen Chandy as a “Communist stalwart” – and said the RSS was undermining the state’s secular fabric.
Published 12 November 2015, 19:28 IST