Will the Lok Sabha election end the left-right-left motion of Kerala politics?

General elections of Kerala are over. The big guns of the traditional partakers of political power are as usual in ‘milkmaid syndrome’. The people of Kerala had registered their political will. Kerala as a melting pot of political experiments has lost all hope in the present day political coalitions. In 1958, Kerala experimented with the coalition model as the newborn linguistic state wanted to avert the growing Communist threat. Unfortunately within a decade the Communists monopolized the art of coalition. Ultimately both the Communist Party and the Congress party lost their political identity and came under the mask of Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF). Time has proved that all these are only trapeze artists in the political circus tent. Coalitions experimented by the ustad of Indian communism, EMS Namboodiripad, failed miserably. Now the destiny of both Fronts is in the hands of communal forces like Muslim parties and Catholic Church sponsored parties.

The present election scenario in Kerala is very different from previous occasions. This time the only difference between the LDF and UDF is in the colour of their flags. Both are competing, bent before the bishops, creating an anti-Hindu halo, humiliating Hindu acharyas like Mata Amritanandamayi, dancing to the tune of powerful invisible forces. Earlier, until the 1970s, all these attributes belonged to the UDF alone, but now the LDF is far ahead in the race. Both formations are competing to belittle Hindus, the potential supporters of the LDF. Above all after May 16th, in the flower of Lok Sabha at Indraprastham, both fronts will work together as one body and two heads.  Let us examine the LDF performance and the social response to it.

The coalition mechanism of the state focused exclusively on the interests of religious minorities, mafias, anti-nationals, quarry-sand mine mafia, fundamentalists, and the rich. This is very clear from the list of candidates announced by both for the forthcoming parliamentary election. In Trivandrum constituency, the Communist parties that lead the LDF have fielded Dr. Bennet Abraham, a Nadar Christian, director of a self-financing medical college and the leader of the self-financing education lobby of Kerala, ignoring LDF’s agitation against the government policy of privatization of professional education. (The ongoing gossip in the cuisine of Kerala is that Trivandrum is the payment seat of LDF).  Whatever it may be, the Communists’ priority is only immediate gain in power politics; not long term gains.
 
The universal deterioration of communist ideology is very evident in Kerala also. In Ernakulam, the industrial capital of the State, the Communists have shamelessly and brazenly played the communal card by fielding Christi Fernandez, a Latin Christian and Sonia Gandhi loyalist, who retired from the central services as LDF-backed independent. Now the anti-US communists are going to experiment with an American style of campaigning in this constituency.
 
In Idukki in the Sahyadri ranges, the Left parties are fielding ‘anti Madhav Gadgil’ movement leader and Catholic Church nominee Joyce George. On the Gadgil issue, the Catholic Church took up the sword against national integrity and called its laity to rise and create another Kashmir in Kerala. The Communist parties sacrificed their tradition of love of ecology for immediate gains by ignoring environmental concerns.

Another CPM candidate from the Syrian Catholic bastion, the famous comedian Innocent, is being fielded from Chalkudy, his hometown. Obviously this is to keep the Church in good humour. The CPM leaders seem to have lost their political and mental balance by wooing defectors from the decaying Congress Party. They have accommodated Philipose Thomas, an Orthodox Christian Congress leader from Pathanamthitta, as part of the CPM’s disguised policy of compromise with the Church of Kerala. In short, the Communist parties have blatantly accommodated all Christian denominations in their list of candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary election. In short they are blatantly played the minority (Christian) card.

Let me suggest a new version to Marx. “Let the ruling classes tremble at a CPM revolution of Kerala. The proletarians of Kerala have nothing to lose but their self-esteem, along with MP and MLA positions. They have to win a world which is controlled by the Church. Let us turn as lambs of the parish. Working men of Kerala (not rest of India), unite!” Clearly all that the CPM can think of is its immediate political gain.

The condition of the Congress-led UDF is not much better; both are peas of the same pod. In Kottayam constituency, the chief contestant is Kerala Congress (a Church run party) leader KM Mani’s son Jose K Mani. His victory has been assured by the CPM by fielding a candidate with no political base from a constituent party, the Janata Dal S. It is no secret. In Idukki, the UDF has fielded a Congress candidate as scapegoat to the Catholic Church’s interests by avoiding sitting MP PT Thomas who, though a Catholic, was not ready to be the slave of the Catholic Church and its bishop who called for a Kashmir-type agitation against the Gadgil Committee report. Had the Congress fielded him, he could win. But Congress wanted to help establish the de facto might, control and influence of the Catholic Church and its bishops before the masses. So they picked a puppet candidate whom the bishop openly humiliated before the public and media.

PC Chacko, sitting MP from Trichur, chose another constituency to escape the wrath of the Church. He openly confessed, like P Chidambaram, that the destiny of Congress in the coming election is deplorable. But he dumped responsibility for the forthcoming and imminent failure on the shoulders of Manmohan Singh instead of the Italian lady and her siblings.

The UDF candidate for Thiruvananthapuram is Shashi Tharoor. For the ordinary Kerala citizen, family life is vital. To them, the American style fragile family life is unimaginable. Hence his personal life story will not gel and his defeat seems certain. This could be an opportunity for O Rajagopal of the BJP. He is well known to the common people and as a Minister in the NDA ministry under A. B Vajpayee government contributed more to Kerala than 50 years of Congress administration. This exalts his position among all his rivals. The extraordinary polling percentage of this general election in the extreme North of Kerala, Kasaragod, will be a favourable indicator to BJP.

Almost all candidates of the UDF and particularly of the Congress are nominees of the Church. A few scapegoats to the multifarious interests of the Church have also been provided in their list of candidates. Hence the coalitions of Kerala are the sum total of various filthy interests. The Church wants to protect priestly interests, not Christian interests. They are not interested in “Thy kingdom”. Poor laymen in ignorance dance to the tune of the priestly class. The Church is the largest employment provider of Kerala, so many are forced to dance to their tune. The villain is the constitution’s guarantees for minority educational rights.

Many priests have licentious lifestyles. The criminal cases filed against them are pending trial, such as the murder of Sister Abhaya which has been hanging fire for a quarter of a century, to the shame of the judiciary. Now, the common man of Kerala is tired of the coalition politics. This time a sizable number is willing to seek an alternative in the BJP. Kerala society has firsthand information of the sweeping changes that have taken place in Gujarat as several youth from the State are working in Gujarat. Thus no testimonials are necessary; some UDF and LDF leaders have openly admitted as much. That is why Kerala society is eagerly waiting for Narendra Modi. The CPM has vowed to eliminate any chance of the BJP opening its account in the State. So it is sure to vote for its sworn political enemy, the Congress, at the last minute, in order to eliminate the rise of the BJP on the horizon of god’s own country. We will have to see if the response from the enlightened Kerala social fabric is adequate to overcome these machinations.