BJP president Amit Shah said in Kerala on Saturday that courts should not pass orders that hit faith, wading into the Sabarimala standoff amid claims that his party had homed in on a potential “Ayodhya of the south”.
“The government and the court should pass orders that can be carried out. They shouldn’t pass orders that hit people’s faith,” Shah said in Kannur, a bastion of the ruling CPM in Kerala — among the few states never to have sent a BJP member to the Lok Sabha.
“An Emergency-like situation exists in Kerala,” Shah alleged, referring to the state government’s crackdown on vandals and protesters who blocked women from entering Sabarimala earlier this month.
Addressing a meeting after opening a BJP office in the district, which has witnessed deadly clashes between the CPM and the Sangh parivar, Shah accused the CPM-led state government of suppressing a movement by the devotees of Lord Ayyappan, the deity at Sabarimala.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan described Shah’s comments as an attack on the Supreme Court and the Constitution.
Shah’s aggression and defiance were greeted with delight by BJP leaders in the capital, who hailed his “strategy to turn the issue into the Ayodhya of the south” ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Both the BJP and the RSS had initially appeared to back the Supreme Court verdict that overturned the bar on women of childbearing age entering the Sabarimala temple.
They had initially underscored their support for “gender parity” but as the protests against the judgment picked up steam in Kerala, the BJP and the RSS changed their stand.
Party insiders said both the RSS and the BJP were working in tandem to “address” Hindu concerns in Kerala and other southern states relating to Sabarimala. The Left government has been accusing both of igniting passions and playing with fire.
The BJP, party leaders said, believes the Sabarimala agitation can do in the south what the Ayodhya temple movement did for the party in northern India, substantially turning its electoral fortunes around in southern India.
Shah’s dream of a big-bang entry in the south with a victory in the Karnataka polls was dashed. He is now trying his luck with Kerala, which elects only 20 MPs.
Every MP does count but for the BJP. But Kerala has particular significance because of its reputation as a holdout state and the last remaining Left island.
That Shah spared time to go to Kerala in spite of being preoccupied with challenging elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh shows Kerala’s importance to the BJP.
“We have been struggling for a long time to make our presence felt in Kerala. Our moment seems to have arrived,” a BJP leader said.
The BJP had managed to win an Assembly seat in Kerala for the first time in the last state elections but has not been able to bag any Lok Sabha seat.
“Amit Bhai is sure that in 2019 we will win a couple of Lok Sabha seats in Kerala,” the leader said.
Some BJP leaders in Delhi suggested the Sabarimala agitation would be treated as a test case on the “popular response” to judicial verdicts dealing with faith. The ill-concealed reference was to the Ayodhya case pending in the Supreme Court.
