The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has perceived the Sangh Parivar’s attempt to “stigmatise” Speaker A.N. Shamsheer for making “anti-Hindu” comments as a subtly targeted and highly divisive political message plotted to trigger resentment in the majority community in Kerala ahead of the by-election in the Puthupally Assembly constituency and the looming 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The CPI(M) State secretariat, which met here on Friday, deemed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was yet again defaulting to its go-to electoral strategy.
It sensed a replay of the BJP’s alleged routine of reverting to its playbook tactic of highlighting dog whistle issues such as Sabarimala, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and, of late, the Uniform Civil Code whenever elections drew close in Kerala.
The CPI(M) secretariat concluded that Mr. Shamsheer stressed scientific temperament over a literalist interpretation of lore.
However, the party was concerned that the Speaker’s “candid statement” had triggered a potentially incendiary war of words between CPI(M) and BJP leaders.
The CPI(M) also seeks to avoid a “Save Sabarimala” kind of agitation that rocked the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government but brought little electoral gain for Congress and BJP.
The CPI(M) secretariat perceived that the “BJP’s crack at playing to unconscious religious biases in society” was also a ploy to pull public attention away from the Centre’s “trespasses on federalism, attempts to strangulate Kerala financially, stymie its development and exacerbate food inflation by whittling away subsidies and grain quota”.
The CPI(M)‘s strategy to defang BJP’s “divisive politics” in Kerala appeared hinged on a protracted campaign to impel voters to clasp hands across religious lines for the State’s welfare and development against a “hostile and divisive” Centre.
Nevertheless, the CPI(M) did not see a reliable ally in Congress. Its State secretariat alleged that Congress had failed to condemn BJP’s “divisive rhetoric”, which sought to portray its political detractors in an “anti-Hindu” hue.
Moreover, the CPI(M) has maintained that the border between Congress’s “soft Hindutva” line and BJP’s “Hindu majoritarian nationalism” was discomfitingly thin.
Nevertheless, the party has opened the door to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), a Congress ally, to join its broad secular alliance against the BJP.
