CPI(M)-Madhani link proves suicidal after Sufiya Madhani arrest

The CPI-M leadership which had forged an out of Left Democratic Front (LDF ) alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) led by Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Madani is now in a spot after the state police was forced to arrest his wife Sufiya Madani in relation to the Tamil Nadu bus burning case in Kalamassery in Kochi in 2005.

Sufiya who is the tenth accused in the case was arrested after the state high court denied an anticipatory bail petition moved by her. The CPI-M state leadership which has been trying to project Abdul Nasser Madani as a reformed person was in for the shock of their lives after the central intelligence agencies and the Bangalore and Tamil Nadu police investigating into the various cases in which the LeT south Indian commander Thadiyantavida Nasser was involved found out that Sufiya had direct involvement in the Tamil Nadu bus burning case.The Central Intelligence also specifically gave leads to the state police that the terror operatives including Thadiyantavida Naseer and Majid Parmabayi considered to be the brain behind the terror operations in the state were sheltered by Sufiya Madani after and before the bus burning episode.

It may be recalled that the CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had shared the platform with Abdul Nasser Madani and was in fact waiting for the firebrand Islamic leader in a function in Ponnani Lok Sabha constituency where the LDF fielded a PDP leader in the garb of an independent as their candidate.

The CPI-M as a political party is also divided into several layers following the arrest of Sufiya Madani with Pinarayi Vijayan and the local self-government minister and senior leader Paloli Mohammed Kutty and former minister and veteran leader T Sivadasamenon coming in support of the PDP deal. The CPI-M national leader and All India president of CITU, Dr MK Panthe and the CPI-M leader and state Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan came out against Madani and his wife. While Panthe told reporters in Delhi that the party decision to share the diocese with Abdul Nasser Madani during the previous general election was totally wrong and ruled out any further dealings with Madani or his PDP. The state home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan also told press persons that the state police has arrested Sufiya on the basis of definite leads to her links with the bus burning issue.

The CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan however came to the rescue of Madani and called up a press conference to come in support of the Islamist leader. Pinarayi told press persons that the police would not show any lethargy in arresting a person if he or she had done any criminal activity but maintained that Madani was a changed man from his earlier fundamentalist approach. Pinarayi also did not rule out any future political alliances with the PDP.

The state Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan as always was totally against PDP and Abdul Nasser Madani and came out with open statement that the CPI-M as a political party would not have any truck with Madani or his PDP in the future. The Chief Minister had to retract this statement after the rebuke and stringent opposition he got from party state committee and state secretariat, the two powerful bodies which takes the decisions on the CPI-M led LDF government.

The arrest of Sufiya Madani has also raised some serious issues on the morality of the political class in the state with both the LDF and the UDF having shared the political space with Madani in different elections for vote share and for winning elections. Madani, it may be recalled was accused as the key conspirator of the Coimbatore bomb blasts which resulted in the death of several persons. The UDF leadership has entered into political alliance with Madani and the PDP during 2001 and it even allocated two seats under its quota to the PDP.

In the recent general elections, the CPI-M has directly forged an alliance with Madani ruling out stiff opposition from a section of the CPI-M leadership and the RSP.

The revelations by the LeT South India commander Thadiyantavida Nasser, considered as one of the kingpins of the bomb explosions through out the country, that he was sharing an intimate personal relationship with Madani and Sufiya Madani has led to the further investigations by the intelligence agencies. Sources told Organisor that the CPI-M leadership was vertically divided with the State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan trying to justify himself with theory that he had reported in party state secretariat just before the elections that Sufiya Madhani had terror links and that the party should not go for any political alliance with the PDP or Madhani.

Madani is now planning to conduct an indefinite fast before the state secretariat along with his thirteen-year-old and ten-year-old children to protest against the arrest of Sufiya Madani. This would raise serious questions on such arrests affecting persons like this.

Top police officials while speaking to Organiser said that such political gimmicks by Madani would affect the pace of the investigation. A senior official said that the arrest of Sufiya was a major break through into several cases in Kerala which were written off following want of proper evidence. That Sufiya Madhani has herself admitted of her contact with Thadiyantavida Naseer, there is nothing much the state police sleuths can do to save her. Thadiyantavida Nasser has also confirmed to the Bangalore police team that Sufiya Madhani was in the know of things including the Bangalore serial bomb blasts.
 

 

 

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