SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan launched a broadside against the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and obliquely attacked its allies in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) in an editorial in the social organisation’s mouthpiece, Yoga Nadam, on Wednesday.  In a signed editorial, Mr. Natesan reiterated his accusation, made ahead of the Assembly election, that the IUML was a “true blue communal party wearing a secular garb”. In what seemed to be an oblique reference to the IUML, Mr. Natesan stated that “divisive forces were gunning for the SNDP Yogam, and the social organisation could ill-afford to remain muted when “political parties in power cradled a communal outfit”. 

Mr. Natesan suggested that an attack on the SNDP Yogam was an assault on the aspirations of the backward class, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities in the State. He alleged that the appointment of personal staff (of IUML Ministers) indicated that the party would only “behave communally once in power”. 

Minister’s statement

He flagged a socio-political plot to “hedge in and undermine” the Hindu majority community in Kerala, “covertly and overtly”. Mr Natesan said Kerala “has not forgotten” Local Self-Governments Minister K.M. Shaji’s purported statement that “religion was paramount” for the IUML.

Mr. Natesan’s latest litany of simmering grievances against the UDF assumed political significance against the backdrop of increasingly shrill demands from the Congress, chiefly former Speaker V.M. Sudheeran, to reopen “meandering investigations” against the SNDP Yogam general secretary, including the ‘microfinance scam” and the circumstances surrounding the death of his long-time aide, K.K. Maheshan. 

Mr. Natesan sought not to spare the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and attributed its defeat to “courting minorities at the expense of the Left’s Ezhava base”, which he claimed formed the “backbone” of the left movement in Kerala. Mr. Natesan’s latest foray against the IUML came close on the heels of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State committee concluding that the party’s failure to forcefully condemn the SNDP Yogam general secretary’s anti-Muslim rhetoric had alienated minorities from the LDF and was a contributory cause to its historic defeat in the polls. 

Mr. Natesan’s “inflammatory rhetoric” against the IUML and targeted attacks against the then Opposition Leader, V.D. Satheesan, often bordering on the personal, had roiled the Assembly election campaign. The editorial also claimed that “the enemies within the SNDP Yogam community and some television channel owners” were part of the “conspiratorial cabal attacking the social organisation” inspired by social reformer Sree Narayana Guru.