Manhole tragedy, Kerala speaks up

30/11/2015, Monday, New Delhi

As sun rose in the morning of November 27 Friday, Kerala woke up to a sad news reading a shocking incident that jolted Calicut district the other day. Two labourers, residents of Andhra Pradesh Bhaskar, Narasimham, were busy inside a manhole cleaning the drainage near Jaya Auditorium in Kandakulam road in the city. The manhole was of 12ft depth and there was water inside it in one man’s height. Both of them couldn’t stay inside any longer smelling pesticide and they struggled to life choked on inside it. In the meantime, Noushad, a local auto rickshaw driver seemingly in the form of god made a daring attempt to save them and jumped into the manhole. But, after they were carried to Calicut Medical College in critical stage the trio had to succumb to death leaving an awful piece of memory to the residents of Calicut and the whole Kerala. None in the State could forget the heart-rending memories of a man who jumped into death to save the two labourers. The Government announced a 10 Lakh money of compensation for Noushad’s distraught family and a government job to his wife.

Now after two days, before getting relieved from the awe, the SNDP (Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam) General Secretary Vellappally Nadeshan has come up with a communal colour to the whole episode. He has alleged that the government showed bias in disbursing compensation to the victim. “So, If you die, you should die as a Muslim (to get compensation), said Vellappally launching a scathing attack against the ruling dispensation. The entire Malayali social media chunks threw arrows of wrath at Vellappally terming it as the first of its kind in the history of God’s own country to distort a rescue incident and pepper it with communal interests for petty political gains.

SNDP leader is for a few months in news for his continuing bid to placate the backward Hindu caste groups purportedly to divide the key traditional vote source of left front LDF, Hindu Eazhava community to which he spearheads. SNDP has also the genesis in sticking to the path of noted spiritual leader of Kerala, Sree Narayana Guru who preached to uphold the secular fabric among human beings and to consider humans regardless of caste, religion or God. He stood for the message of “ One caste, One religion, One God”. In a Volte-face, the current SNDP chief is ‘spewing venom,’ claims the chief of Congress VM Sudheeran, aiming the vote-bank of the Hindu community and blatantly launching communal slurs at other communities. “The communally insane Vellapally is aiming the riots to be launched among the pluralistic society of Kerala,” Sudheeran retorted.  He also cautioned that he is going to press the Government to take legal actions against Vellappally in this case. His controversial remarks were also pounced on by LDF leader Pinarayi Vijayan. He termed it as ‘inhumane and senseless’ statement. He went a further step ahead to call him ‘ Togadiya of Kerala’ (matching him to RSS chief leader Praveen Togadiya ) who is trying to undervalue the contribution of an autorickshaw driver  who sacrificed his life to save other two lives.

The social media also labelled the backward Hindu Ezhava leader’s ‘cheap publicity stunt for equality yatra’ in the wake of his state-wide tour ‘samathwa munetta yatra’ envisaging much awaited alliance with BJP to form a new political party uniting the Hindu caste groups under an umbrella. The Hindu backward caste outfits such as Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha, fishermen outfit Deevara Sabha and Sambhava Sabha have backed the SNDP leader’s decision to flout a new political party while the upper caste Hindu Nair group NSS (Nair Service Society) is still keeping a pace from the alliance. The tour would end in Trivandrum on Dec 5 with SNDP leader’s announcement of the new political party.