BJP State president K. Surendran kicked up a controversy on Tuesday when he said that the Taliban mindset of parties such as the Congress, the CPI(M), and the Indian Union Muslim League
(IUML) was responsible for a statue of Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan not being installed in his native land of Tirur.
Mr. Surendran, who was speaking at Tirur, alleged that it was a minority with extremist views that prevented the installation of Ezhuthachan’s statue. He alleged that the government had bowed before the extremists.
“Nowhere in the world did people have to agitate for installing the statue of the father of their language. It is ridiculous to say that erecting the statue of Ezhithachan is haram (taboo) for some people,” he said.
However, the authorities of the Thunchanparambu, where the legendary Ezhuthachan is believed to have been born, dismissed Mr. Surendran’s allegation as “mere Sangh Parivar ploy to create communal tension and divisions in the society.”
Thunchan Memorial Trust officials said that right wing extremists had tried to implement their agenda several years ago. They had demanded a temple at Thunchanparambu so that the memorial could be manipulated the way they wanted.
A group of right wing extremists had attempted to disrupt a meeting when Jnanpith Laureate O.N.V. Kurup was addressing the gathering at Thunchanparambu several years ago with the demand. Kurup had rejected
their demand, saying that none should be allowed to destroy the secular credentials of Thunchanparambu.
M.T. Vasudevan Nair, who took over the chairmanship of the Thunchan Trust later, continued the tradition.
