Ezhavas should become vote bank: Vellappally Natesan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: SNDP Yogam General Secretary Vellappally Natesan said that there is an attempt to trample and destroy Ezhavas, no matter what field they make gains, and they should become an organised vote bank to counter that. He was delivering the presiding speech at the branch leadership meeting of Yogam Neyyattinkara, Nemom, Parasala and Kuzhithura unions.

"It was people from their own party, Congress, who destroyed and dragged down the then Chief Minister R Shankar. They criticized C Kesavan based on caste. They said all sorts of things about Gowri Amma and VS Achuthanandan. They insulted Pinarayi Vijayan by calling him the son of a toddy tapper. Now, VD Satheesan is demanding that Vasavan, who is a popular minister, resign."

"If the Left party leaves power, the Muslim League will rule Kerala. We should proudly say that we are Ezhavas, not Sreenarayanis. The Ezhava community remained unorganized when organized vote banks gained political power, and is still standing in the old position. There is not even a single Kudippallikoodam for Ezhavas in Malappuram. When the government spends crores of rupees on education, the majority goes to the Muslim community. When the Muslim community got 4,800 schools in the state, 63,000 people from that community got the opportunity to get jobs. The Christian community has 7972 schools. Through this, 1,19,000 people have job opportunities. But the Ezhava community, which is the majority in the population, has only 380 schools. Through this, only 5550 people get jobs. The Ezhava community gets only MGNREGA jobs. Some people accuse us of talking about caste when we point out such inequality. If we conduct a socio-economic survey, we can identify where the Ezhavas stand. Another agitation movement will be needed for social justice," said Vellappally.