VS Achuthanandan-Vellapally Natesan slugfest over Guru

Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition leader V. S. Achuthanandan on Sunday asked SNDP general secretary Vellapally Natesan to read history textbooks before speaking blunders.

Mr Achuthanandan was reacting to Mr Natesan’s statement that Sree Narayana Guru was an Ezhava guru while speaking at Narayana Gurkulam at Chempazhanthi here.

Even during his famous Aruvipuram Prathishta, the Guru had said that ‘I installed our Sivan’. He did not claim that he installed an ‘Ezhava Sivan', Achuthanandan said. Mr Natesan could very well claim the contrary, but he should remember that he was occupying a chair previously occupied by great persons like Kumaranasan, Mr Achuthanandan said.

“Mr Natesan is now trying to surrender the great movement established by the Guru to the Sangh Parivar. There is a great difference between the teachings of the Guru and the Sangh Parivar’s ideals. This move is even against the history of SNDP,” Mr Achuthanandan said.

Otherwise, how could Natesan invite someone like union minister of state for food processing Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, who was accused of hate speech, to a programme of the SNDP, Achuthanandan asked.

Earlier in the day, Mr Natesan reacted sharply to a speech made by Achuthanandan after inaugurating the 161st Sree Narayana Jayanti celebrations at Mambuzhakari in Alappuzha. In the speech, Achuthanandan said leaders like Natesan were misusing the Guru’s name. Narayana Guru was the Guru of nobody else but Ezhavas, Natesan said.

“VS should not be so anxious about the status of Narayana Guru. If the CPM does not reinvent itself, it will find itself in the dustbin,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, the BJP leader and Union minister of state for food processing industries, called on Mr Natesan at his house in Kanichukulangara on Sunday evening. The minister told the media that there was no political motive behind her attending Sree Narayana Guru Jayanti celebrations.