‘Kerala is not Uttar Pradesh’

Going by the number of yatras the BJP is conducting one could be faulted to believe that the party is rattled. On Tuesday, October 3, the BJP President Amit Shah who was a day earlier in Gujarat, flagging off “Gujarat Gaurav Yatra” in Porbandar, launched another yatra in Kerala’s Payyannur town in Kannur district. Kerala’s Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan hails from same district.

The Jan Raksha Yatra or ‘a march for people’s protection’, which is being led by BJP state president, Kummanam Rajasekharan, was launched with the intention of highlighting alleged political violence by the CPM party in the state with an exhortation “All have to live!”.

Speaking at the launch of the march, Amit Shah reminded his listeners of ‘Mission Kerala 2019’ in reference to BJP efforts to win Kerala in the next Assembly elections and denounced “Red-Terrorism” in the state. A large banner hanging behind Shah hyphenated Jihadi with Red Terror, indicating, that BJP is intentionally conflating Muslim extremism in the state with the CPM violence. “CPM leader and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi is directly responsible for all political murders in Kerala,” alleged Shah.

On the second day of the yatra, October 4, Yogi Adityanath joined the march walking along with Rajasekharan. They covered the stretch from Keechery near Kalliassery to Kannur. Surrounded by security personnel, Adityanath spoke at the Stadium Corner in Kannur. In a speech laden with only religious undertones, Adityanath’s speech mentioned only Adi Shankaracharya, Narayana Guru, Chattambi Swami, Sabarimala Aiyyapan and Mata Amritanandamayi. “Adi Shankaracharya established four mutts in four corners of the country and laid the foundation of the modern ‘Hindu Rashtra’. How could a foreign ideology like Communism get entrenched in a land which gave birth to Mata Amritanandamayi,” asserted the UP chief minister.

“That Yogi Adityanath has come to preach here is a joke here. One shouldn’t equate Kerala with Uttar Pradesh or Gujarat. We are a politically aware state. BJP’s graph is at its lowest; their policies are affecting the lives of the poor and the middle class. There is no Modi wave and people have realised that they are being fooled,” said CPM MP, MB Rajesh.

The two-week yatra will proceed from Kannur to Muslim dominated Malappuram, Thrissur, Ernakulam, the CPM stronghold of Alappuzha, the Christian and NRI belt Pathanamthitta and end on October 16 in Thiruvananthapuram. Many of the Union Ministers are also expected to participate including Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, the Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani, BJP MP from Bengaluru, Ananth Kumar and Tourism Minister, Alphons Kannanthanam.

Despite the bluster and terming the yatra an “Ashwamedh”, the launch ceremony did not attract attention of the local populace or receive much coverage in the local media. According to a source, the BJP workers found it difficult to round up public for the yatra. In fact, on the first day of the yatra BJP workers were brought in from neighbouring Karnataka – their accents giving them away. On the second day, it is alleged that some people were brought in from Tamil Nadu and others from Puducherry.

“The yatra, of course, points towards their organisational abilities, but that is not enough to garner votes. The BJP leaders, even without being in power, are embroiled in a number of corruption cases in Kerala, so people are already stating that ‘what will happen if they come to power’. The political impact of the rally will be minimal. They will want to claim success, but they have been exposed,” said Rajesh.

Shah, who was expected to be in Kerala until October 6, left on Tuesday quoting ‘emergency party work’. The BJP Dakshina Kannada unit president Sanjeeva Matandur said that all the scheduled meetings had to be postponed.

Laughing at the antics of BJP, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said, “BJP will do anything to garner power in Kerala, but the people of the state have seen through them. They should all come here and see how the people in the state live. Maybe, they can implement the lessons learnt from here in their own states.”

Balakrishnan asserted that the Kerala government didn’t have a problem with anyone holding rallies as that is the strength of a participative democracy. “As long as it is a peaceful rally, why should there be any problem. BJP will make a lot of noise because otherwise no one will ever take notice of them in the state,” pointed out Balakrishnan.

"The BJP-led government in Madhya Pradesh had stopped the Kerala CM from attending a rally there, but we will do no such thing. They are frustrated that we clamp down on anyone espousing communal sentiments - whether it is the RSS or Islamic fundamentalists," added Balakrishnan.

The Congress-led UDF has also called for a hartal (strike) in the state on October 13 to protest the hasty implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and rise in fuel prices. There are questions on how the BJP rally will proceed on the day, but the hartal organisers have mentioned that it was the appropriate time to hold the rally because a few of the Central leaders will be in Kerala.