Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the liberated constitutionalist, has vanquished the cavemen. Kudos to the torch bearer of neo renaissance.
For all you know, Kerala was a bigoted, communally divided, illiterate and politically dumb backwater before Vijayan took avatar as the ultimate flag bearer of all things civilised.
Had it not been for him, his brilliant posse of advisers, emancipated fans and his partymen who are virtue incarnate, the poor state would have remained a filthy rubbish heap in the south of India - forever.
Now, that danger is dismissed. Kerala has been delivered from the evil. Vijayan has always oozed confidence, so much so that he's called the double hearted (There's only one such specimen in the whole of the land stretching from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram).
But like all great visionaries and true revolutionaries, he hungered for more. All for public good. For him the ultimate touchstone of his helplessly luminous legacy lay in helping a couple of activist women reach the holiest of holies in the Sabarimala shrine.
He was dogged in the pursuit of his glory, and the glory of hapless Kerala state that teetered outside the peripheries of civilisation, in the boondocks, with a begging bowl. But he won finally, glory be to him!
On Wednesday, in the cover of darkness, Vijayan's trusted lieutenants in the police smuggled two women in their 40s in an ambulance to the mountain top. Then they were stealthily escorted by plainclothes policemen into the sanctum sanctorum of the Lord Ayyappa shrine.
Laughable claim of bravery
No, don't hasten to ask if that's an act of cowardice. Vijayan will singe you with a rebuke in his trademark monotone you'll never forget in life. He will then slither inside the security cover of about 50 commandos and preach from the lectern about courage, about the time when he walked bare-chested, daring hundreds of would be killers armed with unsheathed daggers.
More than a brave man, he's the constitutionalist. The last in the line of Ambedkar, Rajendra Prasad, KM Munshi et all. But for him, India's constitution would have been trampled on the ground.
He alone can take the high perch on constitutional morality; fools talk about consensus, review petition, faith, traditions and religious rites.
Vijayan was a man in hurry. Kerala's tryst with renaissance lay on precarious balance. The shrine would close in about ten days and then the Supreme court picks up the review petition on women entry once again.
But he had scores to settle, in the familiar old Kannur way. The RSS and BJP had openly challenged Vijayan on women's entry in the Ayyappa temple. For more than two months the Parivar outfits held young women - activists and agent provocateurs included -- at bay in Sabarimala.
For the true Renaissance hero, wasn't that an insult? His police made several desperate attempts to drag women onto the hill shrine. Finally, his think tanks decided that the best time to usher in Renaissance is the dead of night.
So you call it backdoor Renaissance? You should fear. We are not just good at preaching constitutional rights. A mere 'communist sigh' will blow the thin cover of ash on the smouldering embers of armed revolution lying within us.
No, Vijayan and his constitutionalists won't harm you. (Countless men butchered in Kannur are testimony to that) Rather, they will sell you dreams. One such dream was sold in Kerala the other day. Thank God, in Kerala revolutions come no more from the barrels of guns. They now roll over Walls. Women's Walls, to be clear.
Backdoor Renaissance?
The Women's Wall marked Kerala's place in civilised world. Or, CM Vijayan said so. All his government machinery was used to coerce women to be part of it, and ferry them to the venue. Don't worry, a little persuasion is justified in dialectical materialism.
After the Wall was erected, and Renaissance taken care of, there was this little pesky issue of settling score with BJP/RSS. As the sun set on the Wall, Vijayan's comrades in police made sure his Parivar enemies were done the last, mortal blow.
All glory is reserved for Vijayan. All success is his. The Parivar and the Conges can lick their wounds for eons now. One name is etched in Kerala's history in blazing crimson.
The CM was successful. In dividing the state like never before. In pitting one community against another like never before. In plumbing the depths of Kerala's latent communal chasm like never before. In rallying dozens of communal outfits and peripheral groups for building the Wall. In making a holy, peaceful place of worship a battle zone. In pitting atheists against believers and vice versa.
And ultimately, in scavenging for an ephemeral vote bank on a strictly communal basis. And this last does make him come across as a smart Machiavellian politician. He's clearly the last man in Communist ranks in India who still knows how to build a vote bank and keep his fossilised party in power in at least one state.
Pinarayi Vijayan has all but delivered that magic potion to the state party in an emerald green vial called Sabarimala. Congress-led opposition monolith is split in the middle with the BJP ranks swelling. Now, in the next election, a three-way race with two weak opponents. The comrades will roll over in front of him in gratitude.
His party, the richest organisation in the state, needs to be in power. Limitless power for limitless time is always preferred. After all, isn't that the right Stalinist motivational dictum?
(The author is Managing Editor, International Business Times, India. Views are personal)
