It is a vain attempt to measure the dimensions of right to expression if a word or line turns sleazy. Even then, what right to expression does those people, who some time ago rolled up their moustache and shouted that the dialogues of two imaginary characters in a novel had hurt their cattiest sentiments, have?

The casteist remark made by BJP’s mouthpiece Janmabhoomi against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan through a pocket cartoon should be seen in this context.

The sarcastic comment in the cartoon is that one should think before he allows a person, who should have climbed a coconut tree, to climb onto his head.

This sarcasm is seen as a replay of the comment heard one and one fourth century ago, when Dr Palpu, having earned a medical degree, sought a suitable job in Travancore health service.

The elite class in the Travancore court asked him why he couldn’t have taken up his hereditary occupation. His son Nataraja Guru also had to face similar passing comment when he returned after obtaining doctorate from Sorbonne University.

It was the time when Tamil Brahmins held all top positions in Travancore. The memorandum submitted against this discrimination was signed by not only backward class people. G P Pillai and K P Shankara Menon were its propounders.

It means that top positions were not the hereditary occupation of any sect, caste or class. Decades have passed since but no small foolishness is enough to dream that Kerala can be led back to that old age. This stupidity should be spurned with the scorn it deserves.

Though the above mentioned cartoon satire lacks minimum standard, it opens up avenues for interpretations. Just common sense is necessary to understand that the cartoon is an involuntary manifestation a section of leaders in the BJP. It is in fact an attempt to spit hard, lying on their back.

If annals of Chathruvarnya are examined, shudras are supposed to do only servant’s job. If it is insisted now that they should do only that job, how many Shudras in the country will accept that?

Does this cartoon also indirectly hints at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a backward class person and also the one who used to sell tea for livelihood during his childhood?

Or does it mean that people who silently laughed when certain hopeless leaders in Congress ridiculed Modi, calling him tea seller, are also with the party newspaper?

If they attempt to lock horns with times after befriending memory loss, historical reminders will not be a tasty experience. It was only recently that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adithya Nath mentioned that caste-based discrimination is necessary in this times also. Recently, he also declared that Hindu’s holy book Ramayana was written by Valmiki Maharshi who was a Dalit. By doing so, he was trying to say that caste should also be considered, even if it is the prime minister.

Now if Yogi Adithyanaths, who think caste and hereditary occupation are important, are also in Kerala, they should show the guts to state it openly rather than taking an indirect path.

Don’t baffle youths, who have blind faith and are ready to die and kill, by dressing them up in the garb of Hindu brotherhood. The caste-based list of the party’s political prisoners should also be published. Then come to advise that those who climb coconut tree should go for that job.