Where is it easier for the party to gain political mileage from the PFI ban?
Where is it easier for the party to gain political mileage from the PFI ban?
TeaThe Union Home Ministry’s decision to ban Popular Front of India (PFI) has received different reactions from mainstream political parties in Kerala. While the Congress and the CPI(M) have expressed cautious criticism over the ban, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which along with the Congress, is part of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) in the state, responded. different voices.
While IUML MLA MK Munir lauded the ban, the party’s national general secretary, PK Kunhalikutty, felt that the ministry’s decision was not fair as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other Sangh Parivar organizations were still allowed to operate and engage was going Hate campaigns. Seeing the confusion over the party’s stand, IUML state president Panakkar Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal asked the party leaders to speak in one voice on the issue.
It is easier said than done for IUML to make any political gains from the ban. The PFI’s political wing, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), whose leaders claim it is an independent organisation, has evaded the ban for various reasons. Since its formation in 2009, the SDPI has been denting the Muslim vote bank of the IUML in Malabar and the UDF in southern Kerala. In the 2020 three-tier local body elections, the SDPI secured 95 seats and secured another seven by supporting independent candidates. For some time now, the CPI(M) has also been working cunningly with the SDPI to break into IUML’s traditional base in northern Kerala.
Like the once banned and now defunct Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS), the PFI was portraying the RSS as its enemy to attract the Muslim community, especially the youth. However, unlike the ISS, led by Abdul Nasir Moudani, which revolved around hero worship, the National Development Front (NDF), the forerunner of the PFI, was formed with a focus on collective leadership and a militant-like power structure. was. According to law-enforcement agencies, on the lines of Sunni-Islamic organizations Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Nevertheless, the IUML had been friendly with the NDF during its development, with a section of party leaders patronizing the hardline organization to counter the CPI(M) in Kozhikode. The hacking of CPI(M) worker Anthulathil Vettill Binu in Nadapuram in broad daylight in 2001 is an example of an incident that spoiled the atmosphere in Malabar. A sessions court in Kozhikode had charged six NDF activists in the case.
The Justice Thomas P. Joseph Commission report on Marad communal clashes not only blamed the NDF and IUML activists for their active participation in planning and executing the killing of nine fishermen in Marad coastal village in May 2003, but also the name of the party. Took it too. Senior leader MC Mayin Haji to know about the conspiracy.
Till the formation of PFI and later its political incarnation, SDPI, NDF had infiltrated mainstream political parties as well as socio-cultural organizations and NGOs in the state. The then IUML supremo, Panakkad Mohammadli Shihab Thangal, who was often revered for his role in maintaining communal harmony after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, conceded that the party was facing disaster by associating itself with the organisation.
All these years, the PFI and its allies were disenfranchised by the Muslim Coordination Committee, a coalition of Muslim political, religious and cultural organisations. Even the Jamaat-e-Islami, which has its roots in Islamic ideology, was included in the committee.
Ever since Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal took over as IUML President this March following the death of his brother Panakkad Syed Hyderli Shihab Thangal, he has been coherently balancing the legitimate demands of the Muslim community without separating the Hindu and Christian communities. trying to do.
Many believe that the IUML leadership must stop the rot within the party by subduing the hawks who subscribe to radical ideologies and to convince the Muslim community about the PFI misusing Islam and employing the narrative. For this, the entire Kerala Gem-Iyatul Ulama supported by the party will have to be included. Muslims angry and false prey for their agenda. Again, it remains to be seen whether IUML can turn the tide by de-radicalizing the PFI cadre and involving them in mainstream politics.