Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his cohort of civil servants were misusing State machinery to muscle Government employees into cooperating with the “human wall of women” planned on New Year’s Day in Kerala.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had enlisted the support of few willing social organisations to form a "wall of women" to protect progressive values, which it said was under assault from revanchist forces opposed to the entry of women to Sabarimala. The proposed wall would cover the entire length of the State, spanning an estimated 650 km from Kasargode in the North to Thiruvananthapuram in the South on January 1.
Mr Chennithala told journalists that the Chief Minister has sought to build a human wall of women to ostensibly protect “enlightenment values” by embracing a preferred few Hindu caste organisations over other communities, which had an equal stake in transforming Kerala from a medieval society into a modern one.
Mr. Chennithala warned that Mr. Vijayan’s actions to gain a short-term face-saving advantage over those opposed to the government's hamhanded approach to the Sabarimala issue would exacerbate social divisions in Kerala in the long run. Mr Vijayan, if not politically restrained, would make Kerala “a madhouse” of feuding castes and communities, he said.
The Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference (KCBC) has condemned the wall as socially schismatic. Muslim organisations and other social outfits have said the same. V.S.Achuthanandan, one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had been told that the “caste wall” was against party principles. However, the CM has shunned all wise counsel and seemed determined to blindly push ahead with the wall utter disregard for the scars his actions could cause in Kerala society, Mr Chennithala said.
Mr. Chennithala claimed the government has tyrannised artists, intellectuals, writers and journalists who have questioned the credibility of the wall that did not represent Kerala society as a whole.
Citing trolls attacking actor Manju Warrier for retracting from the government programme, Mr. Chennithala said the LDF-bankrolled troll farms have spawned a swarm of hurtful and offensive posts aimed at the actor after she realised her folly.
Chennithala hits out at Ayyappa Jyothi event too
Mr Chennithala said the Ayyappa Jyothi, the lighting of lamps, planned by Sangh Parivar outfits on December 26 was aimed at communally dividing Kerala and secular forces should defeat it.
The Nair Service Society (NSS) had on Monday supported the programme, which was widely viewed as a Hindu Aikya Vedi counter to what the organisation had condemned as a "wall of non-believers". It had also told its members to stay away from "wall".
However, other social organisations such as the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam and the Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha had declared their support for the “wall of women”.
