CPM’s attack on Jama’at – Biggest Joke in Political Kerala

CPM, foes compete in anti-Jama’at campaign

PNS | Kozhikode

The Kerala CPI(M) had received electoral help from the Jama’at-e-Islami for ten long years and in at least five major polls. The Congress and its ally Indian Union Muslim League had tried to win its support in the past 14 months. Surprisingly, the two sides are now competing against each other in the campaign against the Jama’at.

Observers point out that the CPI(M) and (Congress-led Opposition) UDF, which are now certain that the Jama’at-e-Islami is a fundamentalist organization whose objective is the establishment of Islam-based state, have not been critical of it just days ago. “There are several reports suggesting that the Jama’at could be having pro-Islamist characteristics but the two political fronts are being hypocrites here,” said Alappuzha-based sociologist Soman Achari.

“The Jama’at had been a crusader for the cause of the downtrodden for the past ten years as far as the CPI(M) was concerned. All of a sudden, the Marxists have changed their stand and are now calling it a pro-terror outfit. I don’t think there has been any change of stand in the Jama’at’s theory or practice that warranted such a shift in the CPI(M) perspective,” Achari said.

Following the footsteps of his State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI(M) central committee member and State Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac said on Tuesday that he was absolutely certain that the Jama’at-e-Islami was a fundamentalist organization. He accused the outfit of operating in the country with foreign funds. “Even the Muslim League is unable to digest the theory of religious state of the Jama’at-e-Islami,” Isaac said in Alappuzha.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, a Politbureau member of the CPI(M), said the other day that the foundation of the Jama’at’s politics was its theory of religious state. Echoing the words of Pinarayi Vijayan, he said the organization had different faces in different places. However, he said it was up to the Central Government to inquire into the operations of the Jama’at as it was an all-India outfit.

Former minister PK Kunhalikkutty, State general secretary of the Muslim League who had less than a week ago held a secret meeting with top Jama’at leaders – allegedly to seek their support in the coming local bodies elections – on Tuesday said that the League had no connection with that organization. However, he was unable to categorically state that his party had no contacts with the Jama’at as its leaders had already revealed that the two sides had met at least 14 times in the past four years.

“We have no political deals with the Jama’at. Our parleys with it were over matters of interests to the Muslim society. We have been talking to several community organizations on such matters and Jama’at was just one of those outfits. Our relations with it are purely issue-based,” he said.

Referring to Pinarayi Vijayan’s outbursts against the UDF’s alleged association with the Jama’at and NDF, Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi said in Malappuram on Tuesday that the CPI(M) was trying to appease the Hindus. “Pinarayi is trying to wash away the sin of carrying on his back the PDP (of Abdul Nasser Madani) and the Jama’at by appeasing the Hindus. But it is a futile effort,” he said.