On October 28, more than 150 people were injured – eight of them seriously – in an accident involving fireworks at a temple in Kerala’s Kasaragod district. Some with serious burn injuries were on ventilator support at the time of writing this article.
Roughly eight years earlier, on April 10, 2016, an even more devastating mishap had occurred at the Puttingal temple in the state’s Kollam district, which left more than 100 people dead, hundreds injured and many houses damaged.
Sandwiched between these two incidents were remarks by a couple of ministers from the state government that amazed for its shortsightedness as well as political opportunism.
LDF ministers call safety regulations ‘irrational’
On October 21, 2024, onmanorama.com reported state revenue minister K. Rajan’s view that the central government’s latest directive on the use of pyrotechnics will affect the traditional display of fireworks at Thrissur Pooram, one of Kerala’s biggest temple festivals. He highlighted some new regulations – mostly dealing with the distance mandated between the public, fire-line, temporary sheds, fireworks site and facilities like schools and hospitals in the neighbourhood – as impossible to implement in Thrissur Pooram’s case for want of adequate space.
On October 23, a PTI report said that Kerala’s devaswom (temple affairs) minister, V N Vasawan had called the new regulations irrational and unnecessary and written to the Centre seeking suitable modifications.
Five days later, as news of the latest mishap in Neeleswaram, Kasaragod, filtered in, one wondered what the two esteemed ministers must be thinking. According to a PTI report on the Neeleswaram fireworks accident, the district collector said that as per a preliminary probe, the fireworks storage facility and the place where the firecrackers were burst, were close by. In other words, insufficient distance.
Kerala’s firecracker problem at its religious festivals, is characteristic of a larger political predicament the state finds itself in and which has been fuelling a distinct brand of politics. Kerala is a thickly populated state. Population density is high. Buildings and human dwellings are all over the place; almost. Close to the state’s forests and in its hills, density of habitation thins out a bit. Else, it is one urban to semi-urban stretch.
There should be no difficulty in acknowledging the need to respect safety regulations when it comes to big pyrotechnics displays – especially in urban and semi-urban environments – because the risk of damage to life and property is high. Sadly, in Kerala’s emergent political brew, common sense is easily suspended.
Heady mix of ritualistic religion and politics
A good example of it are big religious festivals. Thrissur Pooram is merely an example. The ministers were quick to highlight how it was impacted by the Centre’s new regulations and consequently demanded modification to rules. Faith in its inflexible, ritualistic avatar is ideal substratum to shape into election-winning politics.
This is why India loves the heady mix of ritualistic religion and politics. It ensures political parties that indulge the religious and ritualistic, a sticky following. It is also likely why the two Kerala ministers, despite them being a part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, informed the faithful quickly about how the new regulations may impact the Pooram.
Two emergent issues will help put all this in perspective. Kerala temple festivals, showcasing elephants and massive fireworks displays, have always drawn fans and critics alike. Its fans, some of them strongly revering tradition, live in their own world of elephant-emperors and high decibel fireworks displays.
Critics of this tradition, quote animal rights and air and noise pollution. Thrissur Pooram has both a massive line-up of elephants and a finale composed of a large fireworks display. In April 2024, the year’s Thrissur Pooram was nearing its concluding phase and the annual fireworks finale, when an alleged misunderstanding between the police and the festival/temple authorities over managing the fireworks display, led to a brief suspension of proceedings.
Since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were set to happen shortly and campaigning for it was already underway, the reaction to the incident was instantly political. Thrissur was seen as a constituency where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may pull off a win. Its candidate, film actor turned politician, Suresh Gopi – he eventually won the election and is currently a union minister – was sighted arriving for discussions that night (following the festival’s disruption) in an ambulance, in a zone otherwise closed to traffic.
Gopi’s dramatic arrival was captured by television cameras. Both the brief suspension of festivities and Gopi’s alleged violation of traffic rules in place, became a controversy. Post election results, the controversy seemed to fade but it received a fresh lease of life when another controversy around the state’s additional director general of police (ADGP) and his alleged proximity to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), broke out.
Polarisation and BJP winning first Lok Sabha seat in Kerala
In LDF-ruled Kerala, the chief minister handles the home portfolio. It was alleged that the above-mentioned police officer had a role in the disruption of the Thrissur Pooram, which it was conjectured, may have polarised sentiments against the other political fronts in the fray and helped BJP secure its first parliament seat from Kerala.
Shortly after the ADGP-controversy broke, campaigning commenced in the state for one parliamentary seat (Wayanad) and two assembly seats (Palakkad and Chelakkara) as part of the November 2024 by-elections. By now, thanks to the alleged ADGP-link, the old Thrissur Pooram controversy was back in force. There were some amusing new angles too. With chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan saying that those claiming the Thrissur Pooram was disrupted were playing into the hands of the BJP.
The TV news of October 28 evening was all about whether the Pooram proceedings were actually disrupted in April or not. Kalangiyo (rendered turbid) athayo (or) kalangiyillayo (not rendered turbid)? – that was the question in Malayalam, channels went to town with. Meanwhile, union minister Suresh Gopi claimed he didn’t arrive in an ambulance (he even compared it to an illusion) only to be corrected by a BJP functionary who said Gopi travelled the last 100 meters or so in the ambulance.
All this, when people out on Thrissur’s streets the night of the Pooram finale, experienced the disruption and Gopi was caught on video cameras alighting from an ambulance. Gopi said that Kerala’s state police won’t be able to flesh out the truth. It was a task, for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), he quipped. Many in the electorate would have found it hard to digest that such issues and comments have become part of Kerala’s political fare.
This brings us to the fundamental reason why such a juncture has dawned in Kerala, a state once thought to favour reason, science and rationalism and was home to progressive religious thinkers. Indeed, around a week before nomination papers for the latest by-elections were filed, Aluva in central Kerala hosted a meeting to signify the 100th anniversary of a famous all-faith gathering addressed years ago by the social reformer Sri Narayana Guru, considered by many to be the greatest reformer Kerala has seen.
Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, who spoke at the function, stayed in mind for disclosing his emergent preference for atheism given how religions have conducted themselves. In Kerala’s contemporary political scenario, the meeting in Aluva, caused few ripples. It was barely noticed.
Fact is, over the past several years, a quiet transformation has taken place in Kerala politics. From being an election environment featuring two leading political fronts – LDF and the United Democratic Front (UDF) – the state has moved to three fronts.
Starting out as a small presence and also contesting the region’s elections, the BJP has become a third front in the fray even though its success in assembly and parliament elections yet, have been just two seats won in years far apart. This three-front contest is a tricky game, widely seen as favouring the BJP, because votes opposed to the Right-Wing party get split while its own loyal core stays devoted to its agenda.
The BJP’s vote share has steadily risen in Kerala and with it, that part of the electorate standing by it, has become an important constituency everyone is forced to handle with kid gloves as anything aligned with ritualistic religion and faith has the luxury of acting unquestionable or countering calls for reform with whataboutism.
LDF ministers pandering to Hindu electorate
In October 2024, when the two LDF ministers highlighted the problem posed by the new pyrotechnics-regulations, they were probably both pandering to this hyper-sensitive portion of the electorate and positioning the LDF state government as being equally concerned about the Thrissur Pooram as the BJP.
That’s also when you get weird viewpoints like minister Rajan’s opinion that since schools are shut during the Thrissur Pooram, it shouldn’t matter if the distances mandated by the new regulations can’t be met. But what if powerful fireworks exploding near a shut school leaves the building with cracks and other damages? Aren’t students thus denied access to their school as good as students denied education?
Surely the new regulations merit some discussion and not outright rejection. That is the approach of responsible organisers. On October 30, the same minister was reported in the media promising all help to those injured in the Neeleswaram incident. By November 1, Suresh Gopi was in confession mode. The day’s Mathrubhumi newspaper had a front-page report on Gopi admitting that he had indeed travelled in an ambulance on that controversial day at the 2024 Thrissur Pooram.
As the smoke and dust around the Neeleswaram mishap settled down, comprehensive news reporting began to appear. On November 1, The New Indian Express carried a detailed report, which departing from the pattern in the media seen till then of sparing the earlier mentioned LDF ministers, wrote: “The letter written by Revenue Minister K Rajan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting to remove the stringent conditions imposed on fireworks display speaks volumes of our nonchalant approach towards human safety.’’
The article listed major accidents involving fireworks in Kerala from 1990 onward. It also mentioned about the recommendations of a panel headed by Justice P S Gopinathan (it probed the Puttingal temple accident), submitted in 2019 and since gathering dust.
Five days after the Neeleswaram incident, on November 2, the media reported that a victim of the tragedy, undergoing treatment in the hospital, had passed away.
Shyam G. Menon, is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai.