‘The News Minute’ runs propaganda article trashing BJP for asking people of temple town in Kerala to elect Hindu MLA: Read how the portal had been rationalising Hindu exclusion

Kerala, which has historically seen a power switch between the LDF and UDF, is witnessing a notable rise of the BJP ahead of the state assembly elections. As the BJP intensifies efforts to gain ground in the politically tough terrain, the leftist media is alarmed and is resorting to its usual tactics, painting the party as ‘communal’ for its pro-Hindu stance. In this vein, The News Minute recently interviewed B Gopalakrishnan, a lawyer and BJP candidate from the temple town of Guruvayur, and framed his pitch to voters to elect a “Hindu MLA”, as some sinister ‘laboratory experiment’, ‘promoting enmity’, ‘divisive’ “Yogi Adityanath-type projection.” The News Minute’s chagrin is rooted in a flex board, featuring BJP’s B Gopalakrishnan, a list of MLAs from 1977 to 2021, who were all Muslims, and a question: “Are you not seeing this?” The BJP’s messaging is urging voters to change this “50 years of neglect”. In March this year, Gopalakrishnan was booked after CPIM lodged a complaint accusing him of making a communally sensitive statement. “Why doesn’t Guruvayur, an international pilgrimage centre, have a Hindu MLA? I have been called on by Guruvayurappan to rescue the land from this half-century-long imprisonment in the hands of temple looters and temple-opposers. Why don’t the Left or Right fronts field a Hindu MLA?” Gopalakrishnan had said in a campaign video. After CPIM approached the police and Congress knocked on the door of the court, the BJP leader doubled down and said, “Does Guruvayur have an MLA who can stand at the Guruvayur Temple and say that they believe in Guruvayurappan? Instead, there is the MLA who says lighting lamps is haram, or that the Guruvayur Temple is a myth. I will raise Hindu issues, and I don’t care if I face charges for that.” In the article titled, “‘Why no Hindu MLA’: Guruvayur becomes BJP’s laboratory for a new pitch in Kerala”, The News Minute laments that while BJP has adopted a rather ‘secular’ approach in Kerala, in sharp contrast to its approach in poll-bound Assam or West Bengal, Gopalakrishnan’s overtly pro-Hindu poll messaging and invocation of religious imagery, particularly, posters featuring him wearing Rudraksh beads and saffron attires, as problematic. While TNM persistently portrayed Gopalakrishnan’s “Hindu MLA” pitch and assertion that the temple town is lacking development since the Muslim MLAs there lacked faith in the historic Guruvayur Temple, as communally charged and divisive, when the BJP leader claimed that the present CPIM MLA NK Akbar allegedly said that lighting lamps is haram, The News Minute quickly defended the Islamic belief. “For clarity, there is no publicly documented instance of Guruvayur MLA NK Akbar stating that lighting a lamp in a temple is ‘haram’. While Islamic theology discourages idol worship for adherents, that does not translate into opposition to the religious practices of others,” the TNM article published on 1st April, reads. Contrary to TNM’s assertion, Islamic ‘theology’ indeed mandates opposition to idol worship and other rituals of polytheists like Hindus, and destruction of idols. Moving ahead, it is indeed a fact that since at least the 1970s, there has been no Hindu MLA from Guruvayur, the religious-cultural heartland for Hindus. The News Minute article acknowledges this history but somehow finds a BJP leader highlighting it as communal messaging, even though it is a mere publicising of facts. If the pattern was reversed: no Muslim MLA in a Muslim-majority seat for decades, every ‘secular’ party and leftist media outlet would have dubbed it systemic exclusion of one religious community. Not to forget, just last month, a group of Muslim organisations in Rajasthan submitted a representation to the Congress party, seeking Rajya Sabha candidature for 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi Riots accused mastermind Umar Khalid, arguing that Muslims in the state lack political representation. When Muslims believe that they can and should be represented by Muslim politicians only, and political parties heed such demands, nobody has a problem, but when a BJP leader played the same card in Kerala, the same tactic became divisive, communal, and whatnot. While the onus of presenting evidence about the incumbent MLA NK Akbar’s alleged “lighting lamps is haram”, indeed lies on BJP’s Gopalakrishnan, the repeated fielding of Muslim candidates by both LDF and UDF in a Hindu-majority constituency, where economy and culture revolve around the worship of Shri Krishna, indicates a deliberate neglect of Hindus to appease Muslims. Although The News Minute’s “Yogi-style” sneer reveals its own bias, the deliberate downplaying of BJP candidate’s campaign raising local issues like water, sanitation, pilgrim infrastructure, and corruption, etc, and overemphasising his “Hindu MLA” pitch and unapologetic expression of his religiosity in poll campaign, comes across as an attempt to portray Gopalakrishnan as a fringe element and not a serious leader with a vision. It is particularly amusing that leftists find nothing problematic in ‘secular’ parties consolidating the Muslim votebank, but when the BJP attempts Hindu vote consolidation, it becomes a ‘divisive’ communal tactic. The News Minute contrasts it with the BJP’s “moderate, secular approach, including Christian outreach”, as if outreach to Hindus is the anomaly. It is notable that the Chavakkad Taluk, which encompasses Guruvayur, has a 54% Muslim population, compared to a 42% Hindu population, with Christians comprising the rest, as per the 2011 Census. BJP leader Gopalakrishnan cited a massive rally held by Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar near Chavakkad and said that, only two kilometres away, there was a Hindu Kumbh Mela, yet none of these leaders went there.  “But just two kilometres away, there was the Kumbha Mela, which was a Hindu religious gathering. If these leaders are truly democratic and secular, they should attend to that as well. But they didn’t. They refused to go. Why? For appeasing a particular community? Why avoid Hindu events? If you are truly secular, you should engage with all communities equally,” the BJP candidate from Guruvayur said. However, The News Minute dismissed Gopalakrishnan’s argument as ‘evasive’ and attempted to broaden the discussion into a wider narrative about selective secularism and political bias. If questioning why the Hindu cultural heartland of Guruvayur did not have a single Hindu MLA in 50 years, and wearing Rudraksh beads and saffron clothes, is turning a constituency into a ‘laboratory’, then other constituencies where Hindus have faced consistent political neglect should also be turned into such laboratories.