There is a widely held perception that it was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's provocative statements that triggered the 'namajapa' protests on October 3. It looks like the chief minister has done it again. This time, by prematurely shaming the BJP, the chief minister has forced the party to redouble its Sabarimala agitation.

A couple of days ago the party was desperately searching for a way to save its face. The Sangh Parivar was keen to shift the Sabarimala battle, lock stock and barrel, to the Secretariat, just a few yards away from where the Assembly session is currently on.

After BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai's 'golden opportunity' video and the party general secretary A N Radhakrishan's circular exhorting cadres to throng Sabarimala were leaked out, the sting had gone out of the BJP's supposedly principled pro-faith agitation. Further, with the police tightening the screws and slapping cases on leaders and putting them in jail, the Sangh Parivar found itself without much leg room in Sabarimala. Soon they got a reasonable enough excuse to shift base: the High Court order on November 27 banning protests at the hill shrine.

Pinarayi's triumphalism

But even before the BJP could firm up its new strategy, the chief minister started teasing the BJP in public. At a press conference on November 29, without any prodding from the hacks, the chief minister declared victory. “The government's stand on the Sabrimala issue is generally getting widespread approval. The BJP itself has ended their Sabarimala agitation. It was only a few days before that they had drawn up the names of volunteers who should go to Sabarimala and also the leaders who should be in control. It is good that they have realised that Kerala's secular heart would not approve of such things. These people were under the impression that they could create wonders in the state,” he said.

The chief minister also trivialised the BJP's proposed Secretariat agitation, and even sounded patronising. “It is a normal kind of protest that everyone does. There's nothing new in it. I am told that they would be fasting. There is nothing wrong in that,” he said, and then rubbed it in. “If this new agitation is to get the government to withdraw the cases against their leaders, I can only say that this too will meet the fate of their Sabarimala agitation.”

BJP factionalism teased out

All hell broke loose within the BJP. The differences that were long simmering, but were effectively kept under wraps, burst out. The day after the chief minister's taunt the BJP faction led by Rajya Sabha MP and former BJP state president V Muralidharan accused Sreedharan Pillai of not doing enough to get K Surendran out of jail. Muralidharan himself declared that no self-respecting BJP worker would agree to a compromise on the Sabarimala issue.

Sreedharan Pillai's predicament

Right from the start, Sreedharan Pillai was worried that an agitation opposing women's entry into Sabarimala would damage the progressive sheen the party was painstakingly acquiring for itself. Pillai's sophisticated approach so infuriated a section of the party that they even initiated a move to bring back Kummanam Rajasekharan, now the Mizoram governor, to the state. Pillai had to give in to those insistent on exploiting the situation any which way possible.

After a while even the RSS had come to view the aggressive line with suspicion. This gave Pillai the leeway to position the BJP's agitation as not against the entry of women but against the police high-handedness and the government's administrative failures in Sabarimala. He was publicly supported by O Rajagopal, the BJP's lone MLA and perhaps the most revered figure in the state unit of the party. With no women in sight, it was also felt that there was no reason to continue the agitation at the hallowed hills.

Soon, it was announced that the BJP's state general secretary A N Radhakrishnan would go on a 15-day fast in front of the Secretariat, not against women's entry but against K Surendran's incarceration. The party, it seemed, was ready for a change of strategy. And then came the chief minister's taunt.

The CM's taunt, and after

The Sangh Parivar activists are now out in the streets, aggressive than ever before. They have decided to waylay the chief minister and ministers, and stage protests at their functions. At the meeting of top leaders held in Kozhikode on December 1, it was pointed out that the waving of black flags and blocking the movement of ministers were crude techniques pioneered by the DYFI and, therefore, should not be resorted to. The opinion, sources said, was rudely brushed aside.

The chief minister himself had a tough time in Chenngannur on Sunday (December 2). He was waylaid and shown black flags, and five women chanting 'namajapa' prayers had to be removed from the venue where he was speaking.

The BJP is back in Sabarimala, too. A group of BJP leaders led by B Gopalakrishnan violated prohibitory orders at Nilakkal on Sunday and were arrested.