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Kerala abolishes political untouchability

Nobody outside Kerala mentioned it, but a certain K R Bhaskaran has been elected to his local panchayat. There are two interesting things to be noted about this election. First, his brother is the President of India, and, second, he was elected on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket!

For one reason or another, Kerala has started slipping off the national media's horizon. Local-body elections in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal make the news, but no newspaper in Delhi or Mumbai made more than a cursory mention of the panchayat polls in Kerala.

The reason, I think, is that Keralašs electorate has fallen into a bit of rut. They always vote for either the Congress-led United Democratic Front or the CPI-M dominated Left Democratic Front. The two major parties squabble in Thiruvananthapuram and cooperate in Delhi. With no real opposition, neither party has an incentive to improve.

Right, that is the general perception of Kerala's politics. But is it correct? I think the panchayat polls signify that there is a change.

Let us go back to the election of K R Bhaskaran. He wasnšt just a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, but that of an alliance between that party and the Kerala Congress-Mani. This latter group is an organisation that draws upon the support of the Christians. The usual charge hurled against the Bharatiya Janata Party is that it is `anti-minority'; so what led the Kerala Congress-M to join hands with it?

The answer, I think, is that untouchability in Indian politics has come to an end. What was the major charge flung at the Bharatiya Janata Party, or its predecessor, the Jan Sangh? It was supposed to be a `Hindi-Hindu', `Brahmin-Bania' party. What is the reality?

The Bharatiya Janata Party is allied with parties such as the Telugu Desam and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, organisations that can scarcely be accused of being Hindi fanatics. If you take a look at the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha, there is no pattern showing any disaffection with the party. That leaves only one charge, that of being anti-minority. Has the time come when even that last charge must be withdrawn?

If you look at Kerala, the answer is a resounding `yes'. The simple fact is that no party has lost votes from Muslims, or Christians, or Sikhs, or whoever simply because it became an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party. That is true of Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and just about every other state. The Kerala Congress-M is simply one of a long line of parties that have realised that.

It is possible too, of course, that the Kerala Congress-Mani realised a couple of other facts. First, its bargaining power with both the Congress and the CPI-M would increase if it could demonstrate that there was an alternative to both. Second, the best-concealed secret in Kerala's politics is the fact that both the Marxists and Congressmen are depending on support from the Bharatiya Janata Party. If the two Big Brothers can get away with that, it would be hypocritical to deny one of the smaller siblings the same privilege!

Please understand that I do not make the charge of collusion lightly. Take a look at the aftermath of the panchayat polls and you shall see precisely what I mean.

The secretary of the Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, P P Mukundan, has openly stated that the United Democratic Front was seeking support in Thodupuzha and Thiruvalla. We do not have to believe him of course, but there are some indications that he was telling the truth. The UDF, which includes the Kerala Congress-Mani, gained control of Thiruvalla only because of the Bharatiya Janata Party's support. In Thodupuzha too the chairman was elected with support from the party.

How about the Left Democratic Front? In Kochi, the BJP was persuaded to be neutral. This decision proved to be critical, just enabling the Left Democratic Front to take control of the corporation. The Marxists can scream as much as they like, but the brutal fact is that they are clinging to their chairs only because of the BJP's support.

The funniest report I have read, however, is about the situation in Palakkad. The BJP engaged in such rapid-fire tactical voting that both the LDF and the UDF were left gasping. It supported the Left Democratic Front candidate for presidency of the local body, and then switched to backing the Muslim League for vice-presidency. The latter is now refusing to take the oath of office, saying he never sought support from the BJP.

Did I mention that the United Democratic Front candidate who was elected chairman of the Thodupuzha municipality also belongs to the Muslim League? The party is now in the peculiar position of taking the BJP's support in one district but refusing it in another!

It may be of some small comfort to the leaders of the Muslim League that they are better off than the Congress. In the Aiymenem panchayat of Kottayam district, Congressmen broke a direct order from the leadership, and voted a BJP candidate into the president's chair. The embarrassed party responded by disbanding the local unit!

Sowing confusion in the opposing ranks is, of course, a classic tactic, and the BJP unit in Kerala evidently excels at it. But let us not lose sight of the strategic reality -- none of this would be possible if the BJP hadnšt gained strength on the ground. The Congress, the Marxists, the Kerala Congress-M, and even the Muslim League are simply recognising the ground reality: that untouchability has no place in Indian politics.

T V R Shenoy