{"id":262634,"date":"2015-12-14T12:44:43","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T07:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/?p=262634"},"modified":"2015-12-14T12:44:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T07:14:43","slug":"controversy-takes-away-the-sheen-of-pms-visit-to-kerala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/controversy-takes-away-the-sheen-of-pms-visit-to-kerala\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversy takes away the sheen of PM\u2019s visit to Kerala"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
\n

\"Prime
Prime Minister Narendra Modi<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nThe first visit of Narendra Modi to the state of Kerala after becoming\u00a0the Prime Minister of the country has already mired in a sea of protest\u00a0from both the ruling front as well as opposition over the exclusion of\u00a0Chief Minister Oommen Chandy from the unveiling ceremony of former CM R\u00a0Sankar\u2019s statue.Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was supposed to preside\u00a0over the function that will take place on December 15. PM Modi will\u00a0embark on a two day visit to the state from Monday onwards.
\nThe state has already seen leaders from both the United Democratic\u00a0Front (UDF) and Left Democratic Front (LDF) coming together against the\u00a0decision of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, an\u00a0organization of backward Ezhava community, to keep off Oommen Chandy\u00a0from the programme. Leaders like N K Premachandran MP from ruling UDF, P\u00a0K Gurudasan MLA and Kollam Mayor Adv V Rajendra Babu from CPM have\u00a0issued separate statements that they will not take part in the\u00a0programme. It is also learnt that the son and daughter of late R Sankar
\nis likely to take part in the programme.
\nP K Gurudasan MLA said in a statement that he will not take part in the\u00a0programme even though he was officially invited for the programme by\u00a0SNDP. \u201cSNDP and Vellappally surrendered to the dictums of RSS and BJP\u00a0and the decision to exclude Ommen Chandy from the programme is\u00a0anti democratic and purely dictatorial\u201d, said Mr Gurudasan.
\nMohan Sankar, son of late R Sankar and president of SNDP Kollam, told\u00a0Tehelka that he is saddened by the way which his father\u2019s name has\u00a0been dragged into a controversy after 43 years of his demise. He also\u00a0said that he would take a decision whether to take part in the programme\u00a0after consulting it with his sister who is living in Thiruvanathapuram\u00a0by Monday evening.
\nIt was CM Chandy in a press note revealed the other day that SNDP leader\u00a0Vellappally Natesan asked him to abstain from the programme as certain\u00a0section had sought the removal of CM in the function that is slated as a\u00a0private programme of the SNDP. Soon after the press note hit the\u00a0channels, the leaders of the Congress and CPM blamed it on BJP for\u00a0conniving with Mr Natesan in the removal of Oommen Chandy.
\nWhile explaining his stand on the issue, Mr Vellappally, the other day,\u00a0said that the Congress leaders have no right to shed tears for Sankar.\u00a0The statue that SNDP Yogam is going to be unveiled in Kollam is not that\u00a0of Congress leader R Sankar, but of SNDP leader R Sankar. \u201cDuring his\u00a0political tenure as a Congress leader, the state leaders of the Congress\u00a0party tried not only unseat him as CM but to destroy him too .
\nHe also added that he alone should be blamed for the exclusion of CM and\u00a0\u2018the reasons behind it will be revealed on 16\u2019. Mr Natesan has been\u00a0in the news for a while for all unwanted reasons. The \u2018Sammathwa\u00a0Munnetta Yatra\u2019 he took for a comprehensive Hindu unity in the state\u00a0saw enough turns and twists with the leader was booked for inciting
\ncommunal sentiments during the yatra. The party, Bharat Dharma Jana Sena\u00a0(BDJS), formation too saw Mr Natesan throwing abusive words,\u00a0purposefully to incite controversy, on the opposition leader and KPCC\u00a0president V M Sudheeran.
\nKPCC president V M Sudheeran said that this was a concerted effort from\u00a0the BJP and RSS to misappropriate the legacy of R Sankar and trying to\u00a0turn him a Hindu leader. He added that that Mr Natesan has become a pawn
\nin the hands of RSS and BJP for this. KPCC has planned a prayer session\u00a0in front of the former CM\u2019s statue in Thiruvananathapuram in protest\u00a0against the alleged discrimination of the SNDP. The prayer will take\u00a0place at the same time Modi unveils the statue on Tuesday at Sree\u00a0Narayana College in Kollam.
\nLate Mr R Sankar was a Congress leader and served as chief minister of\u00a0the state from 1962-64. A visionary leader, he also was the general\u00a0secretary of SNDP yogam.
\nThe irony is that chief minister Oommen Chandy had invited Prime\u00a0Minister Narendra Modi to take part in the unveiling of the statue last\u00a0year December as per the request of Vellappally Natesan. Then, the SNDP\u00a0leader had not finalized any aims to enter into politics and owning a\u00a0party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s first visit to Kerala after becoming PM has already seen a deluge of protests from both UDF and LDF over the exclusion of CM Ommen Chandy from unveiling ceremony of former Congress leader R Sankar\u2019s statute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":261048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,39],"tags":[453,236,466,6400,1277,6557,1681,6515,6558,6519],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}