CPM leadership squirms as Abdullakutty flaunts faith

KANNUR: Leaving not even a speck of doubt, the young MP of the CPM from Kannur has demonstrated that religion comes first to him rather than the party which moulded his political career and made him what he is on Wednesday.

Standing in the front row of thousands of devout Muslims who turned up at the Municipal Jawahar Stadium to offer prayers on Id-ul-Fitr on Wednesday morning, was A P Abdullakutty along with wife Roshna and children Amanrosh and Amanas Abdulla. It was all of piece with his latest realization that a communist could follow religious practices as well.

Abdullakutty, to be sure, had sought clarification on observance of religious practices by followers of the party. But the public appearance of the CPM member of parliament in the very vanguard of a religious gathering could not have been a sight for sore Marxist eyes and it may well prove an acid test to the CPM leadership’s political or ideological tolerance.

And, apparently, no amount of ‘dialectical’ quibbling could now spare the party a loss of face on this account.

The pity, from the party leadership’s point of view, is that it cannot chuck him out, for the time being at least, owing to several factors, mainly the fear of rubbing the minority Muslim community the wrong way. Nor could it make him fall in line, citing ‘discipline’.

Perhaps for the first time in its history, the CPM leadership,who has made short work of the heaviest of party heavies on disciplinary grounds, is fumbling for measures to deal with an errant partyman.

The trivialising of the whole issue by some party seniors, saying that “Abdullakutty is no one in the party,” just goes to underline the CPM’s discomfiture at being unable to deal with this ‘dissident’ the way it has these past years, if not decades. Efforts made by Express to contact the state secretary of the CPM or even the Kannur district secretary to get their reaction drew a blank.

That the CPM is ruthless in dealing with dissenters is all too well known. The list of those who have been at the receiving end of its wrath is formidable — including the once-redoubtable K R Gowri and M V Raghavan. With his fledgling political career, Abdullakutty can’t expect to seek help from any other political outfit. It was quiet natural that he sought shelter under the umbrella of his own religion. In another development, posters have appeared at several places in the district here, mainly Muslim-majority areas, hailing Abdullakutty for his ‘revolt’ and ‘seeking solace’ in religion. It is not yet clear which political party or religious group is behind the ‘poster campaign’ in support of Abdullakutty. But the odds are that the nights ahead could be sleepless for the CPM ‘ren-egade’.

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