5 min readFeb 20, 2023 09:06 AM IST
First published on: Feb 14, 2023 at 12:46 PM IST
There is no rule that the Union home minister should know the Indian Penal Code by heart. So Amit Shah can be pardoned for probably not knowing about Section 153 A of IPC, which deals with “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony”. This section may be read along with Article 1 of the Indian Constitution — India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of states.
Recently Shah’s insinuation about Kerala during a tour of Karnataka has attracted a lot of attention. He said, somewhat cryptically, that “only his party could keep Karnataka safe and (that) there is Kerala near you. I don’t want to say much.” This is not the first time that he has made such innuendos against a state whose people have steadfastly rejected his majoritarian politics. Nor is he the only senior leader from the BJP to trash the most literate state in this country. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath once said that Kerala must take tips from his state in healthcare. While the statement by the UP CM is laughable and falls flat in the face of the central government’s own social development data, Shah’s slur is symptomatic of his penchant for muscular posturing and dislike of a state where the BJP has miserably failed in garnering electoral gains through its usual set of divisive tricks and polarising poll strategies.
Shah’s periodic outbursts targeting Kerala are proof of his desperation as well as his attempt to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra and rewind this country to a past with the Manu Smriti replacing the Constitution. Kerala has tirelessly resisted his party’s designs. The state has a healthy political culture and it continues to withstand the corporate-style hostile takeover and merger politics pursued by BJP elsewhere. It is an irony that his party colleagues have launched a contrived outreach scheme to lure Muslims and Christians into their fold. Incidentally, Shah had earlier threatened to pull down the Left government in Kerala. More than the geographical significance, it is the idea of Kerala that irks the BJP. In fact, Shah’s declarations are somewhat fatalistic because he senses that Kerala is an impregnable fortress of communal amity and therefore beyond his reach — which also means he feels that he loses nothing by denigrating Kerala. His reason for belittling Kerala has to be seen as a bid to pull in votes elsewhere. It ill-behoves a Union home minister to speak so harshly about a state that is part of the Union of India. This suggests a capitulation of all the values that Sardar Patel — who is zealously invoked by Shah — stood for.
Kerala is the land of Narayana Guru, Vakkom Moulavi, and Kuriakose Elias Chavara, all highly successful reformers. It is a state that reflects the ethos of India that Swami Vivekananda had put forth in his 1893 speech in Chicago: “I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.” Kerala is home to multiple faiths that have lived in harmony for hundreds of years and continue to do so. The spirit of multiculturalism that is anathema to the BJP thrives in Kerala, which is, in fact, the biggest example of the lofty goal of Indianness: Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family).
Politically, the RSS, the parent body of the BJP, has been active in what is now Kerala since the early 1940s — around the same period that the communist party was formed there. Although over the decades the RSS and its political arms have invested all their energies, time, and money in the state, their parliamentary strength is disproportionate to their organisational presence.
Each ounce of India’s ruling party’s strength is now being used to create troubles in Kerala and strangle the state financially and politically. That Kerala is a burnished showpiece of redistribution-oriented economic policies and growth that enjoys social parameters on par with the Nordic countries is annoying news for the BJP.
Shah’s remark about Kerala is tendentious, but the people of the state are determined to fight its detractors. Such words lay bare the danger of an insidious agenda that is often couched in propaganda.
The writer is a Rajya Sabha member from the CPM
Union minister Amit Shah at an event in Karnataka's Puttur. (PTI) 
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