Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 6: The Nair Service Society (NSS), an influential outfit of the upper-caste Nair community, has reiterated its demand for the Kerala Assembly Speaker and CPI(M) leader, A.N. Shamseer to apologise for his controversial remarks about Lord Ganesha.
The demand was reiterated by the NSS in a statement after an extraordinary director board meeting on Saturday.
Shamseer had in a programme at Kothamangalam a few days ago said that Lord Ganesha was a myth which created a major uproar in Kerala. NSS general secretary, Sukumaran Nair said that belief was important and that the Speaker had to apologise on his remarks against Lord Ganesha who is being worshipped by millions of Hindus.
The NSS had carried out a ‘Nama Japa Yatra’ or public procession with prayers to Lord Ganesha in the state capital.
The Left government of Kerala even charged a criminal case against several NSS workers and cadres, including women and children, on charges of creating roadblocks.
The NSS state vice president, M. Sangeeth Kumar was charged as the first accused in the case.
The BJP and Sangh Parivar have also taken up the issue, but the support extended by NSS has led the CPI(M) becoming more guarded.
The state secretary of the CPI(M), M.V. Govindan had come out in support of Shamseer and had even told the media that Lord Ganesha was a myth, but later he had to take back his comment and said that the media was twisting his words.
The NSS director board meeting of Saturday also decided not to go into state level agitations against the statement of Shamseer but to resort to legal recourse in the matter.
Vellapally Natesan, the general secretary of the powerful backward class Ezhava organisation, SNDP also demanded an apology from Shamseer for hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community. He said that if Shamseer had apologised the issue would have been settled. (IANS)