Signs emerge of a thaw in Vellappally-Satheesan ties

Signs of a temporary truce appeared to emerge between SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan and Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan on Sunday. Mr. Natesan’s son Thushar Vellappally called on Mr. Satheesan’s home in Paravur, Ernakulam, with a bevvy of SNDP Yogam leaders in tow. Almost simultaneously, Labour Minister Bindhu Krishna called on Mr. Natesan at his house at Kanachikulangara, Alappuzha.

Mr. Natesan’s alarmingly bitter criticism of Mr. Satheesan, often bordering on the personal, had, in some measure, animated the political debate during the Assembly election campaign. However, Mr. Natesan had signalled a climbdown after the Congress named Mr. Satheesan as the UDF’s Chief Minister-designate.

A volte-face

Mr. Natesan also seemed to execute a volte-face by stating that he had never questioned Mr. Satheesan’s merit for holding high political office.

Mr. Thushar Vellappally, who is the SNDP Yogam vice-president, BDJS leader and NDA’s State convener, projected an air of nonchalance after meeting Mr. Satheesan. “The general secretary (Mr. Natesan) has said good and bad things (about Mr Satheesan). But the SNDP Yogam has not worked against him at the hustings,” Mr. Thushar Vellappally said.

Mr. Thushar Vellappally said he was unwilling to jump the gun when reporters asked him whether Mr. Satheesan would reciprocate the “SNDP Yogam’s rapproachment” gesture. On his part, Mr. Satheesan had publicly stated that he would not personally attack Mr. Natesan, given the latter’s age and the social import of the organisation he headed.

Nevertheless, Mr. Satheesan had unsparingly criticised Mr. Natesan’s attempt to “demonise minorities”, chiefly Muslims in north Kerala. Mr. Natesan, in turn, had called Mr. Satheesan an “IUML construct”.

Mr. Satheesan had also alleged that Mr. Natesan’s “mega backer,” and then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, had used the SNDP Yogam leader as a “megaphone” to vilify minorities in the “vain hope” that the “anti-Muslim invective” would consolidate Hindu majoritarian votes behind the LDF.

Mr. Natesan seemed to have blinked first in his stand-off with Mr. Satheesan. He stated that his public challenge to Mr. Satheesan to go into self-imposed political exile if the UDF did not win 100 seats was a “merely rhetorical dare”. Mr. Natesan said his “counter-offer” to step down as SNDP Yogam general secretary was “oratory” that carried little weight.