Kerala abolishes political untouchability

[Guest guest]

Title: Kerala abolishes political untouchability

Author: T V R Shenoy

Publication: RediffOctober 13, 2000

Nobody outside Kerala mentioned it, but a

certain K R Bhaskaran has been

elected to his local panchayat. There are two interesting

things to be noted about this election. First, his brother is the

President of India, and, second, he was elected on a Bharatiya Janata

Party ticket!

For one reason or another, Kerala has started

slipping off

the national media's

horizon. Local-body elections in Gujarat, Uttar

Pradesh,

and West Bengal

make the news, but no newspaper in Delhi or

Mumbai made

more than a

cursory mention of the panchayat polls in Kerala.

The reason, I think, is that Kerala1s electorate

has fallen

into a bit of rut.

They always vote for either the Congress-led

United

Democratic Front or the

CPI-M dominated Left Democratic Front. The two

major

parties squabble in

Thiruvananthapuram and cooperate in Delhi. With

no real

opposition, neither party has an incentive to

improve.

Right, that is the general perception of

Kerala's politics.

But is it correct? I

think the panchayat polls signify that there is

a change.

Let us go back to the election of K R Bhaskaran.

He wasn1t

just a Bharatiya

Janata Party candidate, but that of an alliance

between

that party and the

Kerala Congress-Mani. This latter group is an

organisation

that draws upon

the support of the Christians. The usual charge

hurled

against the Bharatiya

Janata Party is that it is `anti-minority'; so

what led the

Kerala Congress-M to join hands with it?

The answer, I think, is that untouchability in

Indian

politics has come to an

end. What was the major charge flung at the

Bharatiya

Janata Party, or its

predecessor, the Jan Sangh? It was supposed to

be a

`Hindi-Hindu', `Brahmin-Bania' party. What is the

reality?

The Bharatiya Janata Party is allied with

parties such as

the Telugu Desam and

the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, organisations

that can

scarcely be accused

of being Hindi fanatics. If you take a look at

the seats

reserved for Scheduled

Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha,

there is no

pattern showing any

disaffection with the party. That leaves only

one charge,

that of being

anti-minority. Has the time come when even that

last charge

must be withdrawn?

If you look at Kerala, the answer is a

resounding `yes'.

The simple fact is that

no party has lost votes from Muslims, or

Christians, or

Sikhs, or whoever

simply because it became an ally of the

Bharatiya Janata

Party. That is true of

Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,

and just

about every

other state. The Kerala Congress-M is simply one

of a long

line of parties that have realised that.

It is possible too, of course, that the Kerala

Congress-Mani realised a couple

of other facts. First, its bargaining power with

both the

Congress and the

CPI-M would increase if it could demonstrate

that there was

an alternative to

both. Second, the best-concealed secret in

Kerala's

politics is the fact that both

the Marxists and Congressmen are depending on

support from

the Bharatiya

Janata Party. If the two Big Brothers can get

away with

that, it would be

hypocritical to deny one of the smaller siblings

the same

privilege!

Please understand that I do not make the charge

of

collusion lightly. Take a

look at the aftermath of the panchayat polls and

you shall

see precisely what I mean.

The secretary of the Kerala unit of the

Bharatiya Janata

Party, P P Mukundan,

has openly stated that the United Democratic

Front was

seeking support in

Thodupuzha and Thiruvalla. We do not have to

believe him of

course, but

there are some indications that he was telling

the truth.

The UDF, which

includes the Kerala Congress-Mani, gained

control of

Thiruvalla only because

of the Bharatiya Janata Party's support. In

Thodupuzha too

the chairman was elected with support from the

party.

How about the Left Democratic Front? In Kochi,

the BJP was

persuaded to be

neutral. This decision proved to be critical,

just enabling

the Left Democratic

Front to take control of the corporation. The

Marxists can

scream as much as

they like, but the brutal fact is that they are

clinging to

their chairs only because of the BJP's support.

The funniest report I have read, however, is

about the

situation in Palakkad.

The BJP engaged in such rapid-fire tactical

voting that

both the LDF and the

UDF were left gasping. It supported the Left

Democratic

Front candidate for

presidency of the local body, and then switched

to backing

the Muslim League

for vice-presidency. The latter is now refusing

to take the

oath of office, saying he never sought support

from the BJP.

Did I mention that the United Democratic Front

candidate

who was elected

chairman of the Thodupuzha municipality also

belongs to the

Muslim League?

The party is now in the peculiar position of

taking the

BJP's support in one district but refusing it in

another!

It may be of some small comfort to the leaders

of the

Muslim League that they

are better off than the Congress. In the

Aiymenem panchayat

of Kottayam

district, Congressmen broke a direct order from

the

leadership, and voted a

BJP candidate into the president's chair. The

embarrassed

party responded by disbanding the local unit!

Sowing confusion in the opposing ranks is, of

course, a

classic tactic, and the

BJP unit in Kerala evidently excels at it. But

let us not

lose sight of the

strategic reality -- none of this would be

possible if the

BJP hadn1t gained

strength on the ground. The Congress, the

Marxists, the

Kerala Congress-M,

and even the Muslim League are simply

recognising the

ground reality: that

untouchability has no place in Indian politics.

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