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Published Sep 05, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 05, 2025 | 8:00 AM
CPI(M) state secretary MV Govidan, and general secretary MA Baby, with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Synopsis: The CPI(M)’s apparent overtures towards religion and religious personalities are being seen as the party drifting away from its core philosophy, though the organisation has been vehemently denying it.
Is the CPI(M) in Kerala in the grip of an identity crisis?
A few recent incidents have made many suspect that the party is facing an identity crisis. Despite believing in the Marxian dictum that “religion is the opium of the people”, CPI(M) leaders — or their close family members — were often seen in the company of Gods or astrologers.
Visits to astrologers often become public. Typically, such “known” visits are projected as courtesy calls, which aligns with the Marxian ideology. Any belief in stars or their alignments is categorically denied.
Such a visit became the talk of the state recently, after it was known that CPI(M) Kerala secretary had called on astrologer Payyannur Madhava Poduval. The astrologer later clarified that the visit was a courtesy call and had nothing to do with astrology.
Poduval further said that Union Minister Amit Shah and LK Advani had visited them with their horoscopes.
CPI(M) State Secretary MV Govidan with astrologer Madhava Poduval.
Though Govindan did not get the backing of the heavenly bodies, CPI(M) leader AK Balan sprang to his defence and blamed the media for making a mountain out of a molehill. He added that CPI(M) leaders would visit people from all walks of life. “It doesn’t mean we are abandoning dialectical materialism,” he said.
On 4 April, a YouTuber, Sheethal, found Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s wife Kamala and daughter Veena at the Thanjavur Brihadeeswara Temple, locally known as Periya Kovil.
Sheethal’s video of the mother-daughter duo was widely circulated, and troll factories went into overdrive. A meme said everyone would seek God during a crisis, an oblique reference to the case against Veena.
Incidentally, Vijayan’s family had never been publicly aligned with religious practices.
The chief minister’s decision to renovate the cowshed at his official residence, Cliff House, at a cost of ₹43 lakh, too, came in for ridicule. Many wonder aloud why the amount was not used for constructing houses for at least eight families under the LIFE Mission.
Critics found a ‘justification’ for the renovation that did not sit well with the CPI(M): Seeing cows first thing in the morning would bring good luck, they taunted.
Pinarayi Vijayan, his cabinet colleagues, and their families at Marx’s tomb at Highgate Cemetery in London. (File photo/CMO)
The latest in what is being seen as the CPI(M) appeasing religion is the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB)’s decision — backed by the government — to hold a Global Ayyappa Sangamam (conclave) on the banks of the River Pampa on 20 September.
The TDB has drawn up investor packages in Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze slabs to lure expats. The investors will get free stays during the Mandala season, prasadam kits, diaries, and VIP parking. Those in Diamond class, shelling out ₹3 crore, will get five days of free stay, and exclusive rituals performed for them at the Sabarimala temple.
Perhaps, this is the CPI(M) way of altering the Marxian dictum. Religion could rake in moolah!
