For the third time in a row, the unity ship flagged off by the Nair Service Society (NSS) and Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam has fallen apart, hitting the same dead rock — Devaswom Board.
The latest episode in the continuing love-hate relationship between two of the largest organisations representing the Hindu community relates to allegation of ‘betrayal’ made by SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan, thereby formally calling off the unity experiment he had entered into with the NSS counterpart G. Sukumaran Nair.
The issue, he raised, relates to the constitution of the proposed Devaswom Board Recruitment Board and the call for 18 per cent reservation for the economically backward among the forward communities from the Hindus, made by the NSS leadership.
LDF ruleThe problem has its origin during the LDF rule when they decided to hand over the recruitment to the four Devaswom boards — Travancore, Kochi, Malabar and Koodalmanikyam — to the State Public Service Commission.
However, the NSS had opposed the move making it clear that a secular body such as the PSC had no locus standi in this regard and as such the responsibility should be entrusted with a new institution with only Hindus as its members.
Quota formulaThe reservation formula, which would have to be followed in case of PSC appointments, could be followed under the new mechanism too, they had pointed out.
In the PSC appointments, 50 per cent goes to merit list while the other 50 per cent is earmarked for various reserved communities.
Out of this, 32 per cent goes to the various Hindu communities and the rest, to non-Hindu communities in the reserved list.
The NSS argued that in the proposed mechanism too 32 per cent reservation should be assured for the backward and SC and ST communities in Devaswom board appointments as in the case of PSC appointments.
The 12 per cent that would be left over, should be earmarked for the economically backward among the Hindu forward communities, numbering over 80 categories.
Goodwill measuresEver since the launch of the unity efforts in June 2012, the NSS had taken various goodwill generating steps — the biggest one being the decision to withdraw all reservation-related cases in the Supreme Court. It had also maintained a low profile when the income ceiling for creamy layer was hiked.
The NSS leadership had hoped that the SNDP leaders would reciprocate these steps when it came to the Devaswom board appointments, but that did not happen.
First unity effortInterestingly, the first major unity effort, between the NSS and the SNDP was in the 1950s when the NSS founding leader Mannath Padmanabhan and SNDP Yogam chief R. Shanker launched the Hindu Mahamandalam in December 1950.
The experiment was short lived, as it hit the rock over the issue of the Travancore Devaswom Board presidentship.
More than a century later, in 2005, the then NSS general secretary P.K. Narayana Panicker and Mr. Natesan joined hands to fight for the rights of the majority community.
Few years into the bonhomie, it fell apart, that too, on the issue of corruption in Devaswom boards with Mr. Panicker going to the extend of resigning from the Guruvayur Devaswom Board.
Now, it seems, the organisations are unlucky, even the third time-again on the issue related to Devaswom boards.
