While BJP leaders said Shah’s message was for Vaman Jayanti celebrated in various states, the image below his greeting was that of Vamana’s leg on Mahabali’s head, picturising the story of Onam.
BJP President Amit Shah’s tweet greeting everyone on 'Vaman Jayanti' on the eve of Onam sparked off a flutter on Tuesday.
But, the message was in line with an article in the RSS mouthpiece Kesari in Kerala last week saying that Onam should be a celebration for Vamana, the fifth incarnation of Vishnu, and not Mahabali, the demon king.
BJP leaders played down Shah’s tweet saying Onam was on Wednesday and that both Vamana and Mahabali were accepted in Kerala, as an angry Opposition dubbed it as a Brahmanical interpretation which went “against the secular understanding” of Onam and said it had political overtones.
While BJP leaders said Shah’s message was for Vaman Jayanti celebrated in various states, the image below his greeting was that of Vamana’s leg on Mahabali’s head, picturising the story of Onam.
At a time when the ideological war between CPM-led LDF and the BJP-RSS was intensifying in the state, the Vamana angle to a festival celebrated by all communities was seen as having a political subtext. With the CPM, in an apparent bid to reach out to its cadre and minorities, is triggering controversies by raising questions on issues like lighting the “nilavalaku (traditional lamp)”, Onam celebration during working hours and women being barred from Sabarimala, the BJP is looking at ways to counter the campaign to consolidate the Hindu vote bank with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“Calling Onam Vaman Jayanti is the Brahmanical reinvention of the mythology in which they dont want recognise the role of Mahabali. It is totally against the spirit of the festival and counters the secular understanding of Onam,” said CPM leader Prakash Karat.
His party colleague and former Kerala MP P Rajeev people of the state celebrated Onam to welcome King Mahabali who was “magnanimous and treated all his subjects equally which is as per relic.”
The BJP, however, rejected the criticism saying the Vamana angle was nothing new. “Vamana and Mahabali are accepted in Kerala. Onam starts from Kochi’s Thrikakkara temple where the presiding deity is Vamana.
Vamana Jayanti is celebrated in several states,” said BJP leader from Kerala Sreedharan Pillai.
The Sangh Parivar’s interpretation of Onam, a harvest festival, was seen by Opposition leaders in the state as an offshoot of the ideological face off between BJP and Left.
“The BJP is trying to communalise even through Onam. The festival, going beyond community and caste, is celebrated by Malayalis of all faiths in all parts of the world. On the other hand, the CPM is trying to provoke the BJP. They want to weaken the Congress for a bipolar political battle,” said RSP leader and Lok Sabha MP Prem Chandran.
Unnikrishnan Namboothiri, a Sanskrit Professor, had written in Kesari in its Onam special edition that there was no substantiation in the epics that Onam was celebrated to welcome Mahabali. Namboothiri, who quoted parts from the Srimad Bhagavatam, argued that Vamana did not send Mahabali to hell.
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