CPI(M), Congress, and BJP draw battle lines over Sabarimala theft, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, and religious fundamentalism

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have drawn the battle lines well ahead of the Assembly election campaign in Kerala. 

The opposing fronts are poised to debate the Sabarimala temple theft, religious fundamentalism, identity politics, and the Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind (JIH) “Islamist politics” at the hustings. 

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan fired the first salvo at a press conference here on Saturday. He sought to corral the “Hindu majoratarian” Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the “Islamist” JIH in the same political pen with the BJP and the Congress. 

“The BJP draws sustenance from the RSS, which stokes majority communalism. The Congress and its key ally in the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), are seeking political support from the JIH, while not shunning RSS votes,” he said. 

Religious divisions

“Those who use religion for political machinations have no faith. The truly faithful do not weaponise their religion or other people’s beliefs. The Congress and the BJP are on the same page when it comes to using religious divisions and fear of the other to drive votes,” he said. 

Mr. Govindan said the CPI(M) would launch a people’s movement on January 30, Gandhi Martyrs Day, to expose the Congress-BJP gambit. He said the previous Oommen Chandy government had, in a secondary affidavit in 2014, termed the JIH an extremist outfit carrying out anti-national activities. Mr. Govindan accused the UDF of executing a volte-face in 2026 by whitewashing the JIH in a vain bid to save its flagging political fortunes in the election year.

 BJP State president Rajeev Chandrasekhar told reporters that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would spotlight the Congress-CPI(M)-JIH triad” in the election campaign. 

‘Cross-voting’

He said the JIH Amir P. Mujeeb Rehman had openly called for defeating the BJP in the Assembly elections through tactical cross-voting for the Congress and the CPI(M), as the ground situation demanded, signalling a “socially perilous” political realignment in Kerala that sought to disadvantage the secular majority. Mr. Chandrasekhar appeared to signal that the NDA would play to its key constituency. “The BJP will observe the Makaravilakku season as a faith protection month to keep the Sabarimala issue alive,“ he said. 

Meanwhile, the Congress has accused the CPI(M) and the BJP of working in tandem to upstage the UDF at the hustings. All India Congress Committee general secretary K.C. Venugopal said the CPI(M) and the BJP were seeking to reopen old wounds to cause religious schism in the election year by evoking the dark memories of the 2003 Marad riots. “At the time, the JIH was a CPI(M) ally,” he alleged. Mr. Venugopal said the CPI(M) was speaking in the RSS’s anti-minority language.