Kottayam: The influential Nair Service Society (NSS) on Sunday said it has decided to seek legal remedy over Kerala Speaker A N Shamseer’s remarks about a Hindu deity.
The organisation has also moved the Kerala High Court seeking to quash the criminal case filed against its members for protesting against the remarks.
The decision was taken at the NSS Director Board meeting held in Changanassery here during the day.
After the meeting, the organisation in a statement said that the recent case lodged against its vice president and a thousand other identifiable members for allegedly gathering unlawfully before a temple in the state capital was unjustified and that it has moved the Kerala High Court, seeking to quash it.
It also said that since the state government was neither reacting nor taking any steps over Shamseer’s remarks, the NSS has decided to seek legal remedy.
The remarks in question were allegedly made by the Speaker at an event organised at a school in Ernakulam district recently, where he is said to have accused the Centre of trying to teach children Hindu myths instead of accomplishments in science and technology.
Following this, the NSS carried out a ‘namajapa’ procession from Palayam to the Pazhavangadi Ganapathy Temple a few kilometres away in protest against Shamseer’s alleged remarks about Hindu deity Lord Ganesha.
A case was registered at Cantonment police station in Thiruvananthapuram against NSS Vice President Sangeeth Kumar and “a thousand other identifiable persons” of the organisation over this procession, for the alleged offences of unlawful assembly, rioting and obstructing public way under the IPC and various provisions of the Kerala Police Act.
The NSS decision was welcomed by CPI(M) ally Kerala Congress (B) MLA K B Ganesh Kumar who attended the organisation’s meeting.
Kumar, who is a member of its Director Board, said the decision taken by NSS is a dignified one.
As the NSS decided to opt for legal remedy, both the opposition Congress and the BJP continued to demand that the Speaker apologise for his remarks.
A couple of days ago, even Kerala’s influential Sivagiri Mutt, a major spiritual centre of the state’s numerically strong Ezhava community, had said that Shamseer’s remarks had hurt the sentiments of the faithful and urged him to tender an unqualified apology.
Soon after the Speaker made the allegedly controversial remarks, the BJP and right-wing outfits like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) launched a campaign against Shamseer, saying they are aggrieved over the Speaker’s comments regarding Lord Ganesha and the mythical ‘pushpaka vimanam’.
