Let Congress High Command intervene, says NSS chief

G. Sukumaran Nair, general secretary of the Nair Service Society, has called for intervention by the national-level leadership of the Congress to remove the confusion about the “understanding” between the two organisations on giving representation to the majority community in key positions in the administrative structure of the State.

Mr. Nair was speaking to presspersons at the NSS headquarters at Perunna following the response of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala on the controversy surrounding his speech in Thiruvanathapuram on Sunday.

Mr. Nair said Mr. Chennithala response’s was made under pressure. “But his refusal to deny the NSS’s claims, and the admission that he had contested the previous Assembly elections on a directive of the national-level leadership of the Congress point to the veracity of our claims,” he said.

The demand from a section of the Congress that Mr. Chennithala respond to the NSS’s claims points to an attempt to link him to the Nair community and put him under pressure, he said.

“We are only asking the State leadership of the Congress to implement the provisions of the ‘understanding,’” he said.

Mr. Chennithala was selected by the Congress central leadership to represent the majority community. “He was not selected by us, but by the central leadership of the Congress. He was not selected to represent the Nair community, but the majority community,” Mr. Nair said.

The “understanding” was arrived at between the NSS and the central leadership before the Assembly elections for ensuring the support of the NSS for the polls.

“We are only asking them to implement their part of the ‘understanding,’” he said.

Reacting to a question, Mr. Nair said the secular credentials of the KPCC president and his being selected to represent the majority community were not contradictory. “Mr. Chennithala had earlier also raised the issue of attempts being made to dub him a Nair,’” he said.

It was the KPCC(I) president’s detractors who were behind the attempts to link him to any particular community, Mr. Nair said.