Kodiyeri clarifies Sanskrit Sangh not a CPM body

Thiruvananthapuram: CPM Kerala secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Wednesday denied news reports that the party was preparing to observe ‘Ramayana month’ through 'Sanskrit Sangh' an organization formed by left-leaning scholars and cultural activists.

The month of Karkidakam, the last month in Malayalam calendar, starts on July 17, and during the month Hindu families of Kerala recite Ramayana. Kodiyeri alleged that the observation of Ramayana month is misused by Hindutva organizations for arousing communal sentiments. In a Facebook post, Kodiyeri said the RSS-Sangh Parivar campaign is to reap political benefits through a communal use of the tradition.

However, he noted that the body, Sanskrit Sangh does not come under the CPM. It is an independent organisation. " I believe that the programmes they are running are not linked to Ramayana reading in the month of Karkidakam. It is not a programme restricted to the month of Karkidakam either. Some media organisations are trying to paint the CPM in bad light in the name of the programmme. I request the people that they understand the truth without getting trapped in such campaigns,” he wrote on Facebook.

Meanwhile, noted poet and writer K Satchidanandan had made a post in Facebook that he did not see anything wrong in CPM observing a Ramayan month, but withdrew it following the clarification of the party. In a revised post he explained that he was familiar with Sanskrit Sangh as a broad forum for communal amity.