CPM shares dais with Madani: Fissures in LDF

The
poll alliance forged by the official leadership of the Kerala CPI(M)
with the PDP of Abdul Nasser Madani has worsened the divisionism in the
Marxist party and also caused deep fissures in the party-led ruling
LDF.

After the standoff between the CPI(M) and the CPI over
the right to contest the Ponnani Lok Sabha seat, the sharing of the
platforms of LDF election conventions by CPI(M) State secretary
Pinarayi Vijayan and PDP leaders and the way they openly humiliate the
leaders of LDF constituents have led to strong protests in the front.

Pinarayi
had shared the dais with PDP chief Abdul Nasser Madani, whom most
sections of the Kerala society still see as leader of a pro-extremist
outfit, at Ponnani on Saturday and with his deputy Poonthura Siraj at
Attingal on Friday. Siraj had caused discomfort among the LDF partners
by making derogatory remarks against RSP national chief TJ
Chandrachoodan from the LDF venue in the presence of Pinarayi and other
front leaders.

CPI State secretary Veliyam Bhargavan on Sunday
reacted sharply to Siraj’s statement asking what right he had to talk
like that. CPI national general secretary AB Bardhan had on Friday
termed Madani’s PDP as a communal party, but Pinarayi and associates
still chose to go ahead with the new alliance with Madani, against whom
reports of terror links abounded.

The enthusiasm of CPI(M)’s
Pinarayi faction in establishing electoral ties with Madani’s party is
also causing disruptions in the fragile peace now being felt inside the
Marxist party. According to sources, Pinarayi’s arch rival and State
Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan has given strict instructions that PDP
activists should not be allowed to participate in the poll programmes
he is participating in.

While Pinarayi shared the dais with PDP
leaders at Ponnani and Attingal in the presence of thousands of PDP
workers, not even a single PDP worker was seen at the election
conventions that Achuthanandan inaugurated in Mavelikkara, Alathur and
Palakkad constituencies. Achuthanandan had already said that he would
look into the reports about Madani’s alleged terror links and had even
summoned DIG TK Vinod Kumar, head of the Kerala Police’s Anti-Terror
Squad to inquire about the progress of the investigations into terror
operations inside the State.

Sources in the CPI(M) said that
Pinarayi’s programme of enforcing his “arbitrary decisions” on the
party would lead to yet another explosion in the organisation. They
said Achuthanandan was lying low for the time being to abide by the
central leadership’s instruction not to cause hiccups with his moves on
the SNC Lavalin corruption scandal, in which the CBI was waiting to
make Pinarayi one of the key accused.

“Pinarayi and his
loyalists in the party are trying to argue that the CPI(M) was united
in roping in Madani as its associate. This is not true. Even several of
his own loyalists are strongly opposed to this new marriage. But they
are afraid to speak out concerned about the consequences. However, the
protests would soon reach a flashpoint,” said a member of the CPI(M)’s
Ernakulam district committee.

He said that the CPI was not
acting tough now just because of their frailty and due to their
decision not to create further problems till the elections were over.
“Veliyam has already hinted that his actual reaction to the alliance
would come after the elections. The RSP, which was humiliated by
Madani’s lieutenant, would also raise its voice. And if we lose Ponnani
even after all these alliances, the fight within the party and the
front would be real hot,” he added.

Parties attack CPM for allying with Madani

PNS | Kochi

The
CPI(M) on Sunday faced harsh criticism from various quarters for its
electoral alliance with Addul Nasser Madani’s PDP, which the Marxists
formalised on Saturday by Pinarayi Vijayan and Madani sharing the same
stage and praising each other at the election convention in Ponnani
constituency.

While BJP said that the CPI(M), with its alliance
with Madani, a ‘terrorist’ was challenging the patriotism of all
Indians, CPM general secretary MV Raghavan said that Pinarayi with his
alliance with Madani was founding a “fourth front” while CPI(M) general
secretary Prakash Karat was working for a ‘Third Front”. According to
senior Congress leader and Union Minister Vayalar Ravi, CPI(M) alone
was holding PDP as a secular party while Muslim League State general
secretary PK Kunhalikkutty reiterated that PDP was a communal party.

State
BJP general; secretary and party’s candidate in Ernaklulam constituency
AN Radhakrishnan said that the CPI(M) was sacrificing the interests of
the nation by forging ties with the PDP. “The links of Madani and his
wife Sufiya with the several terror cases including the bus-burning
incident in Kalamassery had already been established,” he said.

Madani
was now saying that he would give up his public life if his terror
connections were proved but the BJP would take action against him if it
came to power after the election, Radhakrishnan said.

MV
Raghavan said in Thiruvananthapuram that Pinarayi Vijayan had led the
CPI(M) to such a pathetic state that Marxists could not show their
faces in the public because of the new relationship with Madani who was
recruiting people to terror outfits. He said it was up to Prakash Karat
to clarify whether the relationship with Madani’s PDP was party of the
CPI(M)’s official policy.

“What Pinarayi is doing is to welcome
Islamic terrorism into Kerala,” Raghaan said. With the alliance with
PDP, Pinarayi was giving shape to a “fourth front”, he ridiculed.

Vayalar
Ravi said that the CPI(M) was arguing that PDP had no terror or
communal relations even when Madani himself was not claiming he was not
communal. “Indeed, the CPI(M) is appeasing communalist and nobody has
any doubt about it,” Ravi said in Kochi.

Ravi said that all
Muslim organisations in Kerala, except the Muslim League, were
communal. Asked for clarification, he said, “All Muslim parties except
Muslim League are communal. No doubt about this.” He said some UDF
candidates could have entered into some arrangement with the PDP but
theFront had never formed an alliance with that party, he said.

“The
only Left leader to say that PDP is not a communal party is Pinarayi.
CPI leader AB Bardhan said the other day that PDP is a communal party.
The CPI(M), which had in the past accused the UDF of taking PDP votes
has now lost all its political morality by forming an alliance with
Madani,” Ravi said.

State Congress spokesman MM Hassan ridiculed
the CPI(M) saying that the CPI(M) was now walking with Madani in one
hand and the Bharateeya Janapaksham in the other. “Pinarayi is capable
of going to any extent to win four votes,” Hassan said.

Muslim
League State general secretary PK Kunhalikkutty alleged that the
CPI(M)’s efforts by forming alliance was not aimed at winning the
Ponnani seat but to create communal conflicts in the State. The LDF
would not win the Ponnani seat with the support of the PDP, he said in
Kozhikode.

“We have never formed any political alliance with
the PDP. We are not ready to put trust in the certificate the Left
front is giving to Madani’s party. PDP is indeed a communal party.
Their political line is extremist-leaning. CPI(M) will never succeed in
its efforts to whitewash Madani,” Kunhalikkutty said

Replying to
the allegations leveled by Madani on Saturday against the Muslim
League, Kunhalikkutty said that he too possessed several letters
written by Madani and those letters contained several explosive
matters. “We had helped Madani from the humanistic angle. But we have
never shown such a craze as is being shown by CPI(M) now,” he said.

However, Kunhalikkutty did not give a direct answer to a question whether the NDF (Popular Front of India) was a communal party.



Inquiry be conducted
against Madhani if NDA come to power: BJP


www.kaumudi.com

KOCHI: BJP Kerala General Secretary
and candidate for Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency A
N Radhakrishnan yesterday said that an inquiry on the
‘terror links’ of PDP leader Abdul Nasar Madhani would
conducted if BJP-led NDA came to power at the Centre.

Speaking to reporters here he criticised CPI(M) for
aligning with PDP and added that the former was interested
in vote bank politics.

Radhakrishnan criticized CPI(M) State Secretary Pinarayi
Vijayan for sharing platform with PDP at the election
convention of LDF independent Hussein Randathani in
Ponnani.

Congress was keeping silent on the matter as the party
leader Oommen Chandy had also sought PDP support during
the 2001 elections when Madhani was in Coimbatore jail
in connection with serial bomb blast case, he alleged.

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