Prime Minister Narendra Modi's communal statement that sought to create a clear Hindu-Muslim divide in the country has the Kerala BJP leadership running for cover. However, while attempting to give Modi's words a more acceptable interpretation, BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai seems to have virtually accused the Muslim League of a pro-Pakistan tilt.
The prime minister, while addressing an election rally at Wardha in Maharashtra on April 1, said the Congress was so afraid of a Hindu backlash that Rahul Gandhi had gone to “contest from a seat where the minority is majority”. An allusion to the predominance of Muslim community in Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency.
However, Sreedharan Pillai, giving Modi's statement an ideological spin and making it seem less communal, sought to make a distinction between Muslims and Indian Union Muslim League. “We have nothing against our Muslim brethren. We need their votes too. In fact, in 2004 we had won in a place like Lakshadweep that had nearly 98 per cent Muslims,” Pillai said. (BJP's P Pookunhi Koya had in 2004 sprung a surprise by defeating P M Sayeed, who had been the island's MP right from the first election held there in 1967, by a slender margin of 71 votes.)
Instead, Pillai said, the BJP was criticising Rahul Gandhi for his over-dependence on Indian Union Muslim League. “There is no hope for Rahul in Amethi this time. The Congress has not won a single Assembly constituency within Amethi during the 2017 polls,” Pillai said. “Desperate for a safe seat, he has come to Wayanad. That he had to seek refuge in the hands of the Muslim League shows his party's utter helplessness. Any child will tell you that the Muslim League is the most dominant party in Wayanad,” he said and added: “But you will have to look at Rahul Gandhi's candidature through the prism of history.”
The burden of Pillai's argument is that the League, though it had been a Congress ally for long, was looked down upon by Congress stalwarts. The BJP still considers the IUML, though it is restricted to Kerala, the offshoot of All India Muslim League that was formed in 1906 and was helmed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. “This was a party that was described as a “dead horse” by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru had even asked League leaders to remove their cap while entering the Parliament,” he said. “Why do you think Indira Gandhi refused to give them a Cabinet post though they were technically allies,” Pillai asked.
Here, the BJP leader hinted that the Muslim League still held secessionist tendencies deep within. The first chapter of the League's official history is titled 'Dhakayile Sooryodayam' ('The sunrise in Dhaka'), he said. “The sunrise they have referred to is the formation of the All India Muslim League in Dhaka in 1906,” Pillai said. He then went so far as to say that Rahul's candidature is a mockery of what the Congress stood for.
Pillai also said that Rahul's Wayanad foray has for all practical purposes put an end to the grand alliance the Congress was trying to cobble up against Narendra Modi and BJP. “The Congress-CPM attempt to form an alliance in West Bengal failed. Now, Rahul is taking on the Left in Kerala,” he said. “There is no ideological basis for Rahul contesting from Wayanad. It is not a secret that the BJP is only the third force in the area. If it was BJP that he wanted to fight, there were so many constituencies in the state where the BJP was a force to reckon with,” the BJP state president added.
