Desperate CPI(M) trying a Hindu card in Kerala

Its tirade against Jamat-e-Islami raises more questions

THE CPI-M has recently started a smear campaign against the Islamist fundamentalist organisation after secretly sharing political turf with the deadly outfit for the past two decades.

The CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has started it all by firing salvos against the Jamat-e-Islami leadership and called upon the people of the state to be aware of the subservient nature of that organisation. Close on the heels of the CPI-M secretary his colleague in the CPI-M politbureau and Kerala Home Minister ,Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that the Jamat-e-Islami is propagating fundamentalist ideologies and called upon the central agencies to investigate on its activities as it was working in a national level.

It was the turn of the state Finance Minister Dr Thomas Issac to attack the Islamist organisation and he said that the Jamat-e-Islami was trying to propogate its fundamentalist ideology under the camouflage of social organisations and called upon the people of the state to have a watch on the activities of the Jamat-e-Islami .

Political observers were stunned at the CPI-M’s volte face as it was the CPI-M which had given a semblance of respect to the Jamat-e-Islami by sharing platform with its leaders and even publicly accepting the ideological position of this organisation.

In the last assembly elections CPI-M had a clandestine seat adjustment with the Jamat-e-Islami and had even supported the candidature of the erstwhile Muslim League and SIMI leader KT Jaleel who won the Kuttipuram assembly elections with the support of the CPI-M trouncing the Muslim League heavy weight PK Kunhalikutty.

The CPI-M has all along been having a hide and seek relationship with Jamat-e-Islami to counter the influence of the Muslim League and had shared a working relationship with the fundamentalist organisation with both the Jamat-e-Islami leadership being comfortable in the left rules in the state.

The sudden volte face of the CPI-M could be attributed to the fact that the party finds it tough to wean the Muslim votes with the Muslim League and the NDF strongly in the UDF fold and calculated that if the party supported Jamat-e-Islami then there would be a strong Hindu backlash and that it would affect its prospects in the coming panchayat elections.

The CPI-M leadership also knows that the Hindu community as such is totally against the policies of the party including the party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan sharing the diocese with the Islamic fundamentalist leader Abdul Nasser Madani and seeking the support of his political party PDP in the last general elections. The party trouble shooters on careful analysis of the last general election results have found out that the Hindu backlash was the one reason for the heavy drubbing the CPI-M and the LDF received in the last general elections with the front winning only two Lok Sabha seats out of the twenty.

The party managers also knows that in central Kerala, the Christian vote bank would also come out strongly against the CPI-M and that the party cannot stand alone in the elections without the support of the Hindus. To this extent it should be noted that the CPI-M leadership had taken extra care to project a Hindu Nair as the next chairman of the powerful Travancore Dewaswom Board and sources told this correspondent that the party leadership had went to the Nair Service Society headquarters in Changanassery to appease the Nair community.

The party problem managers are, according to highly placed sources trying to appease the powerful general secretary of the SNDP Yogam, Vellapally Natesan and to win over its traditional Ezhava vote bank back to the party fold.

However, the party managers ,according to sources, has after a detailed survey found out that the majority Hindu community, which is the vote bank of the CPI-M in the state felt let down by the LDF government in the state on all fronts and has a general lethargy and antagonising attitude towards the CPI-M and the LDF.

To overcome this, party strategists are trying to work out a game plan like in 1987 when the late EMS Namboodiripad pushed out the All India Muslim League from the LDF and projected a pro-Hindu political outfit. The CPI-M cadres and leaders were privately propogating a strong Hindutva wave during the elections and the party and the left front won by a thumping margin and EK Nayanar became the Chief Minister of the state.

The CPI-M is, as a desperate move trying to attempt this in Kerala once more to try and win over the Hindu community votes and according to sources a word to mouth campaign that the Congress and the UDF is dominated by minority communities is also unleashed. The CPI-M with a strong cadre machinery is trying to sell this idea to the general populace in the state and to try and atleast reduce the margin of drubbing in the ensuing panchayat elections

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