Lashing out at the Sangh Parivar for describing 20th century social reformer Sree Narayana Guru as a Hindu saint, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today said the move was an 'insult' to Guru and part of their political agenda to seize progressive and freedom movement idols of the country.
Inaugurating the state-wide centenary celebration of Guru's historic proclamation 'Namukku Jathiyilla' (We have no caste) here, Vijayan said it was a deliberate attempt on the part of Sangh forces to confine Guru within the compartments of a particular religion or caste.
The Chief Minister's statement came in the wake of a recent Facebook post of BJP state unit, describing Narayana Guru as the greatest "Hindu sanyasi" Kerala has ever seen.
The Chief Minister termed the debate, connected with Guru, as very 'unfortunate' and said the main objective behind itwas politics.
"There was a deliberate attempt to portray Guru as an advocate of whatever he had stood against. This is clearly an insult to Guru. The Namukku Jathiyilla proclamation made by Guru in 1916, itself was clear proof for what he was," he said.
"When the very essence of his proclamation is clear as daylight, the deliberate attempt to term him as Hindu sanyasi is going on. The danger of this propaganda should be realised by the general public and efforts should be made to check it," Vijayan said.
The CPI(M) leader said this kind of attempt by the Sangh Parivar was happening not only in Kerala, but also across the country.
"They are trying to make their own, the idols of freedom and progressive movements across the country," Vijayan said adding the right wing outfit had no role either in the freedom struggle or progressive movements in the country.
As part of their move, Sangh forces tried to portray social movement legends from B R Ambedkar to Ayyankali and Pandit Karuppan as Hindu religion reformers, he alleged.
"Actually, they all had fought against chatur varnya (caste system) and tried to free people from the terror of it. But the present efforts by Sangh Parivar is to picturise them as the advocates of what they actually stood against,"he said.
In this context, the Chief Minister also criticised BJP's argument that Onam celebration was 'Vamana Jayanthi' and not the homecoming of demon king Mahabali, which is the popular legend behind the festival.
"There were also attempts to seize the myths and legends of Keralites and distort them. The agenda behind this is to re-establish the bygone upper class hegemony," he said.
Triggering controversy, BJP president Amit Shah had greeted Keralites 'Vamana Jayanthi" during this Onam and Pinarayi Vijayan had objected to it and demanded an apology.
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