Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday said the State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, was attempting to ingratiate himself with the leadership of the Nair Service Society (NSS) because he smelled defeat for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Chennithala’s observation came soon after NSS general secretary G. Sukumaran Nair, on Thursday rejected Mr. Balakrishnan’s repeated offers to go to the social organisation’s headquarters in Perunna for talks. Mr. Nair said the NSS would not parley with any entity on matters of faith and had not assigned any person to do so.
“The NSS stance on Sabarimala is set in stone. It will remain unchanged regardless of the outcome of the ongoing litigations for and against the entry of women between the age of 10 and 50 to the temple,” said Mr. Nair.
The NSS has been consistently against the entry of women of reproductive age to the hill shrine, maintaining that it was a trespass against the ancient customs of Sabarimala that has distressed lakhs of believers.
Mr. Balakrishnan told reporters in Pathanamthitta on the sidelines of the Kerala Samrakshana Yatra that the CPI(M) had no enmity with the NSS. However, the NSS leadership should not interpret the party’s willingness to discuss outstanding issues as a weakness, he said. If the NSS took a political stand against the Left Democratic Front (LDF), it would have no impact on the electorate, he added.