People of Kerala have seen through CPM's deceit: Kummanam Rajasekharan, BJP's state president

The BJP seems to be looking at the Kerala assembly polls as part of its larger, nationwide, class struggle against the Left. The party state president Kummanam Rajasekharan says the BJP is at the vanguard of new people’s movements in Kerala displacing the Left. In New Delhi to finalise the NDA’s candidate list, Kummanam met with Praveen S Thampi. Excerpts from an interview:

Your new ally, the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), is a political party that came out of nowhere. There is this criticism from among your own rank and file that the BDJS is growing at the BJP’s expense.

The BJP is not fighting it alone in Kerala anymore. We are now a front, like the Left front or the UDF. The BDJS is the main partner, then there is the Kerala Congress led by PC Thomas, the Kerala Vikas Party which is an outfit of high-range farmer etc. In a coalition, any party joining you is an asset. The BJP doesn’t have to do anything on its own to boost the BDJS. Our vote is ours, their vote is theirs.
The dramatic strides the BJP made in the recent panchayat polls were mostly in constituencies dominated by the Nair community. The BDJS comes from the Ezhava SNDP camp. Do you think Nairs will vote for the BDJS?

Look, the BDJS is contesting in their strongholds. For instance, they haven’t asked for any of the seats in Thiruvananthapuram, which are Nair strongholds. In an election, many factors come into play. In Kerala at least, there is no guarantee that you will win just because you belong to the biggest grouping in your constituency.


Also Read: Why BJP's gambit in Kerala centres on the capital Thiruvananthapuram


Don’t you think a caste-based outfit like the BDJS will eventually be a threat to the pan-Hindu unity you are working towards in Kerala?

Not at all. The BDJS brings in not just the mass base of the SNDP Yogam, but also Dalit organisations like the KPMS (Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha) and the Yogakshema Sabha of Brahmins. These are also marginalised groups. Who are the landless in Kerala, who are the unemployed in Kerala, who are the marginalised in Kerala? These are all people that no political party has bothered to help.

If that is so, why couldn’t BJP consolidate these groups until now?

Well, we have to grow step by step.

Many of them are also traditional votebanks of CPM. Why would they shift allegiance to you all of a sudden?

Well, they have finally realised the deceit of the CPM. And that is precisely why you wouldn’t be able to spot a red flag in the numerous agitations happening in Kerala demanding redistribution of surplus land. Look at the political murders happening in Kerala, the victims belong to these social groups. The CPM is a corporate party today that doesn’t care any more about the marginalised. Remember those visuals of Marx-Lenin-Stalin statues being plucked and carried away by huge cranes in East Europe and the former Soviet Union? The same awaits the Marxists of Kerala. CPM leaders like EMS Namboodiripad used to approach issues ideologically and with a theoretical perspective. Do you hear any such intellectual talk from the likes of Pinarayi Vijayan? The CPM is resorting to the politics of violence to mask this ideological bankruptcy.

Are you saying that BJP is the new claimant for all those ideals for which the CPM once stood for?

Well, let me put it this way. We stand for basic humanity.

As the BJP president in Kerala, do you find it difficult to explain away the controversies that haunt the party in Delhi? Like the one surrounding beef?

Not at all. The ‘beef question’ has been thrown at me many times since I became the president. There’s nothing wrong in eating beef... Kerala has a different food culture. But let me reframe this debate. The cattle wealth of Kerala is fast depleting, one should assess how it is affecting the ecosystem. Our local breeds have disappeared. Cattle are so vital to the health of the soil, its fertility. I think if, unlike Kerala, agriculture is still flourishing in north India, and if the soil is still fertile, it is because of the ban on cow slaughter.