What role can a tantri (chief priest) possibly play in the rough and tumble of Kerala’s politics?
“I am where the righteous ought to be,’’ responds Akkeeramon Kalidasan Bhattathirippad, tantri to hundreds of the State’s temples, as he gets set to campaign in Thiruvalla. Mr. Bhattathirippad is the BJP-led NDA’s candidate there.
Interestingly, this 53-year-old commerce graduate hails from a family that nurtured strong Communist inclinations and connections. He too was excited by the Communist ideology in his teens, and his father Akkeeramon Agnisarman Bhattathirippad was a staunch Communist.
His ancestral home of Kuzhikkattu Illom in Thiruvalla was one of the places where veteran Communist E.M. Sankaran Namboodiripad had spent time while in hiding, in the early 1950s. However, the family’s association with RSS pracharak P. Madhavan in the later years took the young Bhattathiripad to the Sangh fold.
Mr. Bhattathirippad holds tantric rights in almost 850 temples across the State.
'These include the Sreevallabha Temple in Thiruvalla and the Parthasarathy Temple at Aranmula, among others. This former president of the Kerala Yogakshema Sabha, organisation of Namboodiri Brahmins, says his joining hands with SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan, and Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha general secretary T.V. Babu, to help float the political party, Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, was a well-considered decision.
“A broader Hindu unity could bring about a lasting inter-religious trust and social peace. It should not be misinterpreted as a communal move,” says the tantri-politician.
