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Vamana’s Deception


A few years ago, Home Minister Amit Shah infuriated the people of Kerala by wishing them Happy Vamana Jayanti on the occasion of their state festival Onam. While Vamana is the fifth incarnation of God Vishnu for Amit Shah and his counterparts in North India, Vamana is a monstrous impostor for Malayalis. (That’s yet another of the umpteen instances that highlight the impossibility of a monolithic Hindu religion.)

Vamana sent Kerala’s most beloved king, Maveli, to the netherworld merely because of jealousy. Maveli (elision for Maha Bali or Bali the Great) was a demon (asura) king. But he was beloved to his subjects because during his reign Kerala was a utopia. There was fraternity, equality, justice, truthfulness, and so on everywhere in the kingdom. Maveli had become greater than the gods for the people of Kerala. Obviously, gods didn’t like that. So none less than Vishnu took the form of a dwarf, Vamana, and deceived Maveli. That deception was punishment from gods to an asura for being good!

Amit Shah could not have been ignorant of this legend when he greeted Malayalis on Vamana Jayanti. Someone who is an arch-villain for a people was being transmuted into a divine figure with that greeting. Shah and his people are experts at rewriting histories as well as making villains out of heroes and vice versa. But Kerala won’t accept those histories and inversions easily. I wonder whether Shah and his friends have ever tried to find out why their party doesn’t ever win a seat in Kerala’s elections.

Of late, there is some tilt among Kerala’s Hindus towards the BJP. This is achieved by spreading the poison of communal hatred. As I have written in this very space time and again, hatred is a powerful tool, far more powerful than love or any good emotion. Even the people of Kerala can be susceptible to its intoxications. If the nascent sectarianism takes deep roots in the state, that will be a Vamana moment for Amit Shah and his colleagues.

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Comments

  1. moondustwriterApril 26, 2022 at 8:30 AM

    To not know the legend or promote anyway - an intentional insult??? Leaders need to respect more.
    U

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 26, 2022 at 9:30 AM

      I'm sure Shah knew what Onam celebrated. He was playing a game as usual.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousApril 26, 2022 at 10:44 AM

    I am just hoping someday, we will be a truly secular country and love will win. It is also ultimately upon us to choose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 26, 2022 at 11:35 AM

      I would like to share your hope. It's possible but not with the present leadership.

      Delete
  3. Rajeev MoothedathApril 26, 2022 at 10:45 AM

    Must have been testing the waters to see what happens- If it worked good for him and party.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 26, 2022 at 11:20 AM

      That's more likely. In fact, a few BJP people in Kerala went to the extent of defending Shah.

      Delete
  4. Afshan ShaikApril 26, 2022 at 11:15 AM

    That's expected from those who are rewriting history..it almost made me laugh that he wished. So far I have been very happy by seeing how Kerala is handing the political hatred. Now that you say they are falling in their traps...it's painful!!!


    I have written something today which is related to this post. If time permits do read. Little long post though!


    Dropping by from a to z "The Pensive"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 26, 2022 at 11:22 AM

      Politics is a power game and in that game anything is grist to the mill. Since all other strategies have failed, BJP in Kerala is doing what it did in other states: rouse up communal hatred.

      Delete
  5. AnonymousApril 26, 2022 at 4:18 PM

    Sometimes, you suffer less because others are bad and more because you are very good (just too good to be tolerated by the bad ones). People like Amit Shah will only take the side of the tricksters and present them as role models, not the naïve and the nice ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 26, 2022 at 4:23 PM

      The wicked are scared of the innocent. But gods getting scared of others' goodness is quite bizarre.

      Delete
  6. Janaki/Ishaan SaiApril 26, 2022 at 9:58 PM

    Well, this could also be a saazhish (not getting teh exact English word for this at the moment) of Amit Shah ji and his friends, for all you know. These guys can do anything!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anagha YatinApril 26, 2022 at 11:28 PM

    Mixing politics and religion is a lethal combination. How I wish, as a common man/ woman, that life could be simpler with live and let live policy. Instead of being religious, if we could just be spiritual wont that suffice? The moment all will understand this, no politician would ever be able to milk the cow of religious hatred politics.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalApril 27, 2022 at 10:13 PM

      Spirituality is obsolete today, made so by a man who sat in meditation in a Kedarnath cave for as many seconds as a mushroom in Badrinath longed to be in a Chinese soup.

      Delete
  8. Stock Trading IdeasApril 29, 2022 at 10:35 AM

    BEST STOCK FUTURE TIPS

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    ReplyDelete

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