Tirur (Malappuram): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched a campaign to drum up support to install a statue of Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan in Tirur, the birthplace of the 16th-century poet, considered the 'father of modern Malayalam'.

"This campaign is above politics and religion because Malayalam is the mother tongue of all of us," said BJP president K Surendran on Friday, after paying his respects at 'Thunchan Parambu' in Tirur, where Ezhuthachan was born.

But Surendran dived straight into politicking, accusing mainstream political parties, "particularly the (Indian Union) Muslim League", of taking a stance to block the installation of Thunchath Ezhuthachan's statue in Tirur. "Here the mainstream parties, particularly the Muslim League, took a stance to block it. The ruling party CPM succumbed to the pressure of the Muslim League and some people with vested interests," he said, without elaborating on who the people are with vested interests.

It has become a shame for Kerala that a statue of Thunchath Ezhuthachan could not be installed in Tirur, he said.

He said the BJP would meet cultural leaders, actors, poets, social activists, journalists, and political and religious leaders, and seek their support.

The Pinarayi Vijayan-led government's Department of Culture should take the initiative to install the statue of Thunchath Ezhuthachan, Surendran said. "Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan should take the initiative. The new leadership of the Muslim League, now that a young leader is at the helm, should please cooperate with it," he said, referring to Sadiq Ali Thangal (58), who took charge as the state president of IUML in March.

Surendran said the statue should be installed either in Thunchan Parambu, which is now a premier Thunchan Memorial Trust and Research Centre, or a place decided by the municipality. "The statue should be installed officially," he said.

Surendran started his visit to Tirur by paying homage to Ezhuthachan at Thunchan Parambu but he did not discuss the demand with the trust, said K Sreekumar, the coordinator of Thunchan Memorial Trust and Research Centre.

Sreekumar, who had written the Thunchan history, said Thunchan Paramba was the biggest and most important memorial of Ezhuthachan. "Moreover, there is no definite image of Ezhuthachan available for a sculptor to be modelled on," he said.

The Trust, however, uses an illustration of Ezhuthachan on its letterhead and website drawn by artist K M Vasudevan Namboothiri. "That's artist Namboothiri's imagination and we are using it. But it cannot be considered as the photograph of Ezhuthachan," he said.

Tirur municipal chairman A P Naseema of the Muslim League rubbished Surendran's allegation that her party was against the statue of Ezhuthachan. She said she had taken the matter up with writer M T Vasudevan Nair, who is the chairman of the Trust. "When I became the chairperson, I wanted to erect the statue of Thunchath Ezhuthachan in Tirur because he is the pride of our town. So I raised the matter in the meeting of the trust held in MT's house in Kozhikode," said Naseema, who as the chairperson of the municipality is a member of the trust.

"MT told me that the image of Thunchan now in circulation is an imaginary one and cannot be used to make a sculpture," she said.

Surendran said an artistic impression of Ezhuthachan available in the public domain was acceptable to the people of Kerala and the sculpture can be modelled on it.

In 2002, the Muslim League-controlled Tirur municipal council commissioned a sculpture of the 'primal poet' and artist Rajan Ariyallur was roped in for the project.

Rajan made an abstract faceless sculpture. "Ezhuthachan lived some 450 to 500 years ago and his photograph is not available. We know him through his works and through writings on him. It is not proper to give a face to the sculpture," he said.

So Rajan made an imposing sculpture of Ezhuthachan sitting crossed legged but the focus was on him scribbling with his iron stylus on the palm leaves.

According to reports, a section of IUML councillors opposed the installation of the statue. The project flopped, Naseema said without attributing a reason.

The CPM joined the issue in 2015 when the LDF got control of the municipality. "The CPM saw the matter through a historical lens," said Tirur's CPM councillor Girish, who was the chairman in 2015.

He said the party held talks with the Kerala Bhasha Institute, the Thunchan Memorial Trust, and historians. "It was everybody's studied opinion that erecting a sculpture will not be proper as there was no photo available," he said. "That has been the CPM's position since then," Girish said.

Sculptor Rajan said the project became controversial not because the sculpture was abstract. "My work was rejected because I did not accept a model pushed by an engineer in the department," he said. Later, political parties took up the matter and polarised society. "Just like the hijab issue now," he said.

The Ezhuthachan he made was abandoned in the coconut tree pit for 12 years until the PTA of Government UP School, Ariyallur, agreed to give space to the sculpture. Rajan's Ezhuthachan was installed in the school's courtyard in March 2014. "I am happy it found a place in the school I studied," Rajan said.