Kerala’s MPs have joined hands across parties and decided to oppose in Parliament a purported move to withdraw a government book on martyrs of the freedom struggle that mentions two personalities whom the Right wing considers “anti-Hindu”.

The decision came at a routine meeting on Monday of members of both Houses of Parliament from Kerala on the subjects to be taken up during the monsoon session, scheduled from September 14 to October 2.

At the heart of the controversy lie Variyamkunnath Haji and Ali Musaliar, heroes of the 1921 Mappila Rebellion or Malabar Rebellion against the British in Kerala.

Both were executed by the British and are featured in the Dictionary of Martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle, jointly published by the Union ministry of culture and the Indian Council of Historical Research and released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.

Sangh parivar members have written to the central government seeking withdrawal of the book since they view Haji and Musaliar, whose supporters killed tyrannical Hindu landlords during the rebellion, as “anti-Hindu”.

CPI Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam had broached the subject at Monday’s meeting of Kerala’s 28 MPs, held through videoconferencing and chaired by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. All the state’s MPs are from the CPM-led and Congress-led fronts, with none from the BJP.

“I said we need an official stand on this matter as it’s not a good precedent to withdraw books of such historical importance,” Viswam told The Telegraph.

“So I moved an oral resolution to stand up for our freedom fighters. Our chief minister immediately extended support and said it was an important issue that must be taken up in Parliament,” Viswam said.

All the MPs supported the oral resolution. Among them were Lok Sabha members Benny Behanan — convener of the Congress-led United Democratic Front — and his colleague from the Indian Union Muslim League, E.T. Mohammed Basheer.

“I’m glad that Kerala’s MPs took a united stand on this, since the BJP is out to destroy everything that is against their communal and divisive agenda,” Viswam said.

Basheer told this newspaper: “Usually there would be a lot of differences of opinion at such meetings. But everyone agreed with Viswam on this point. This has to be read with the BJP’s larger agenda of saffronising history books.”

He claimed he had information that the BJP had “bulldozed” the ICHR into agreeing to reprint the book after omitting the references to Haji and Musaliar.

“The BJP is not going to change its stand just because we are going to raise this issue. But at least we can put our objections on record in both Houses,” Basheer said.

CPM Rajya Sabha member Elamaram Kareem said: “It’s heartening that the parliamentarians from Kerala transcended political barriers to stand up for our freedom fighters and against the BJP’s agenda.”

A controversy had broken out in June when noted filmmaker Ashiq Abu announced a film on Haji.

While the BJP and its allies objected to Haji’s “glorification”, a pro-Sangh filmmaker, Ali Akbar, announced a rival film to project a different side of Haji and his men.

Both films are expected to release next year.