Cracks have appeared in the Nair Service Society (NSS)- the powerful body of the Kerala Hindu’s Nair community – with discontentment
brewing against its general secretary Sukumaran Nair.
Incidentally, the Hindu community in Kerala accounts for more than 50 per cent of the nearly 3.30 crore state population, of which Nairs come a close second after the Ezhava.
Over the years, NSS has been maintaining an equi-distant policy when it comes to supporting the CPI(M)-led Left or the Congress-led UDF. When the BJP also joined the political bandwagon in the state, many thought that NSS would partially shift towards it, which did not happen.
But after the Sabarimala temple issue surfaced, the NSS was a bit upset and at times they nearly took an open stand favouring the Congress-led UDF.
Since long, Sukumaran Nair has been at the helm of affairs and on Friday things took a turn for the worse when the internal strife surfaced in the open when Kalanjoor Madhu — who has been a close confidant of the former — walked out at their annual general body meeting which consists of 300 elected members from various NSS units.
Madhu is the elder brother of State Finance Minister K.N.Balagopal and Sukumaran Nair in his speech said that a section is trying to scuttle things and termed them “traitors”.
Angered by this, Madhu and six of his close associates walked out of the meeting.
“Whatever little democracy that was there in the NSS has disappeared and I decided not to contest this time because of this. Things are not the same in the NSS as it was before and I cannot adjust to that and hence took this step and came out,” said Madhu.
Another reason for things not all that well in the otherwise disciplined NSS is on account of finding a successor to Sukumaran Nair, who has been at the helm of affairs for a long time.
NSS had their own political outfit- National Democratic Party (NDP), but the legendary Congress veteran K.Karunakaran who was the be-all and end-all in Kerala politics in the eighties in one stroke finished off both NDP and the political arm of the Hindu Ezhavas’ Socialist Republican Party.
Both these political outfits were allies of the Congress-led UDF and Karunakaran felt that if given more exposure, it could turn wary for the Congress in general.
Now all eyes are on how the present rift in the NSS will be capitalized by the three political combinations as the Lok Sabha election is round the corner.
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