Temple ritual at CPI(M)’s procession triggers row

The performance of a temple ritual during a cultural procession organised near Taliparamba under the aegis of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on August 24, ostensibly to counter ‘shobha yatras’ held by the Balagokulam, has raised a controversy.

The Sangh Parivar has decided to organise a protest to condemn the ‘affront’ to the Hindu ritual, even as the CPI(M) maintained that the performance was just a model of the ritual as an art form.

The procession held at Bakkalam, near Taliparamba, on August 24 as part of the CPI(M)’s ‘Nammalonnu’ procession featured Thidambu Nritham, a temple ritual associated with Thrichambaram Sree Krishna Temple, near Taliparamba, here.

Criticising the CPI(M), the Sangh Parivar claimed that the former had affronted the temple ritual by its display at the procession. An action committee for protecting Hindu rituals, formed by the RSS, announced that it would organise a convention and public function at Taliparamba on August 30.

"Revivalists of communalism"

CPI(M) district secretary P. Jayarajan on Friday said those trying to create the controversy over the display of the model of the ritual performance were revivalists trying to instigate communalism. RSS leader Valsan Thillankery, who is also the convener of the action committee, said at a press conference on Saturday that the CPI(M) had organised parallel processions alleging that the Sree Krishna Jayanti celebration by the Balagokulam was a public display of what should be confined in the precincts of temples. The same party had displayed Thidambu Nritham in a public procession, he said.

Calling on the CPI(M) to apologise for the performance, he said the decision of a section of the party to hold its procession at the same day and same time as the ‘shobha yatras’ being held across the State for nearly 35 years betrayed arrogance and lack of morality.