Nair Service Society, a prominent organization in Kerala, had been accused by the LDF for ‘joining hands with BJP’ to stir up anti-incumbency.
Nair Service Society (NSS), the prominent socio-cultural Nair community organisation, placed a newspaper ad in Kerala on July 13, expressing their gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inducting Rajeev Chandrasekhar into the Union ministry post. In the ad, the NSS has thanked the Prime Minister for appointing Chandrasekhar, thereby ensuring the “representation of the Nair community in the Union ministry.” A Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, Chandrasekhar is the Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The ad comes amid allegations by the LDF about NSS’s affiliation with BJP. During the 2021 Kerala Assembly election, after casting his vote, Sukumaran Nair had said while referring to the Sabarimala issue that people wished to vote for “those [who uphold] secularism, democracy, social justice and those who protect the faith of people, which the LDF government was not able to do.” This was taken further by the Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, and K Surendran, who made similar statements. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan retorted to Nair’s statement by stating ‘Ayyappa’ (the deity of Sabarimala) and all the gods are with the LDF. The Sabarimala topic was extensively used as a point of contention by the UDF and the BJP-led NDA in different ways, prior to the election, and even the UDF, which promised to protect Sabarimala and its devotees if elected into power, in its manifesto. Post the polls, LDF convener and CP(M) secretary A Vijayaraghavan expressed resentment in Nair’s words through the party’s mouthpiece ‘Deshabhimani” by saying Nair had joined hands with Congress and BJP in a bid to tumble the LDF government. To the media, Raghavan said that Nair “was trying to give a political message and it was to defeat the LDF.” The Sabarimala issue caused an immensely polarising rift following the September 2018 Supreme Court verdict saying that women of menstruating age can’t be denied entry into the temple. The Supreme Court said that denying women entry into the temple is a violation of fundamental rights. Nair’s comment on the election day was interpreted by the LDF as a political move to agitate sentiments against the government. NSS is a highly influential organisation which was founded in the late 1910s for the Nair community in Kerala. Incidentally, NSS General Secretary G Sukumaran had, in January this year, thanked Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for their tweets regarding Mannam Jayanti, the birthday of NSS’s founder Mannathu Padmanabhan. BJP state president K Surendran had shared this on his Facebook handle and also said Nair had sent letters to both Modi and Shah.
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