An article titled ‘Kerala: God’s own country or Godless country’, in Organiser, the weekly magazine of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has snowballed into a huge controversy in Kerala. The article authored by M Surendranath, a lawyer and law lecturer from Mumbai, has drawn widespread criticism with politicians and common people lashing out at the author. Many have criticised the article for painting the entire state of Kerala in bad light and generalising all Keralites. Opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan has called it the Sangh’s war cry on Kerala.
The article claims to be explaining the historical background of the evolution of food-preferences of Keralites in the wake of the Chief Minister wanting to drag the Delhi police to court over the beef raid in Kerala House recently. In doing so, the article disses the Congress and communist regime, accusing them of stripping its citizens of any kind of ‘human values’.
But what seems to have irked readers are sentences like, “Nowhere in the entire world can one find such radical political thinking and consciousness as that of the citizens of Kerala, although the State is a small narrow strip of land bordering the Arabian Sea”.
The writer also says, “Malappuram located in the central part of Kerala is a miniature of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the Muslims are allowed to live undisturbed by carrying on the practice and propagation of Islam and to receive funding from wealthy Arabs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the district of Malappuram, one can find cow slaughterhouses at every nook and corner and a thriving leather industry. “
Pinarayi Vijayan reacting to the claims in the article about Malappuram said, ”Such campaigns about Malappuram district have been doing the rounds for sometime now. We suspect that there is a plan to create communal clashes in the district. We will oppose the RSS’s plan to project Kerala as a ‘centre for terrorists’ to the rest of the world.”
The writer has been bombarded with comments for listing various negative statistics about Kerala and has been accused of conveniently ignoring the positive ones. Vaisakhan Thampi, a Facebook user pointed out, “Mr. Mumbai-based liar, when you quote list of 'highest...' about Kerala, why did you forget 'Highest development index' (which is on par with developed European countries), 'Highest life expectancy', 'Lowest infant mortality' etc? I'm sure you'll get a loud round of applause from Sanghi dumbwits for this series of lies.”
Another reader Hari Krishnan R said, ”Wished you did a little groundwork for your hate speech… what we need first and foremost are a few huge communal riots, we welcome you here.”
Yet another reader Priya Sarala Govindan said, “For us cow is just an animal which we look after for its milk, male calves and old cows are given to slaughter houses. We don’t let them wander on roads or starve them to death or export them to neighbouring states for slaughter.”
A few things that were said in the article:
Nowhere in the entire world can one find such radical political thinking and consciousness as that of the citizens of Kerala, although the State is a small narrow strip of land bordering the Arabian Sea.
It has the highest number of divorce rates amongst its married people; it has the highest number of youths of opposite sex living together without marriage ever since the UPA-Parliament enacted the legislation, viz. “The Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2004” which for the first time in Bharat introduced the concept of living together without marriage known as “Live-In-Relationship”, which was the brainchild of militant feminist and Bharat’s foremost communist ideologue, Indira Jaising, who is an iconic woman amongst the college-going girls of Kerala.
It has the highest number of rationalist NGOs who attack everything dear to Hinduism and its faith system.
Nowhere in the entire world can one find such radical political thinking and consciousness as that of the citizens of Kerala, although the State is a small narrow strip of land bordering the Arabian Sea.
CM of Kerala, Oommen Chandy is credited to have the dubious distinction of carrying out the highest number of “Student Agitations” during his school and college days, qualifying him to become the CM of such a violent state.
Presently the State is regarded as the nursery of Islamic fundamentalism, financially and logistically supported by Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
EMS Namboodiripad also regularly visited the houses of Dalits and took part in their social functions at which dishes of beef were served which he partook, affirming to them with his purported logic “there is nothing wrong in eating beef when one can eat mutton”. Thus, the hotels and restaurants run by Muslims and Christians across the length and breadth of Kerala started serving beef as a prominent unavoidable dish since the time communists captured power in the State in the 1950s.
The author also says that instead of teaching about the life of Hindu saints, warriors and kings like Raja Harish Chandra and Shivaji, books pertaining to the life and time of public prostitutes [like “The Autobiography of a Sex Worker” By Nalini Jameela); the life and times of a notorious thief (like “The Autobio-graphy of Maniyan Pillai, The Thief”) etc. were introduced in Kerala syllabus.