Minority tail rules the head in Kerala

Call it coalition compulsion. In Kerala, the senior partner is being held hostage by a junior partner. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has been breathing down the Congress’s neck ever since the UDF government, led by CM Oommen Chandy, assumed power with a wafer-thin majority in Kerala. But the Congress’s silence all along has highlighted Chandy’s so-called subservience before IUML, who has a history of arm-twisting the Congress.

When Kerala’s Panchayat Department, headed by IUML leader M K Muneer, issued a circular fixing the marriage age of Muslim girls in the state as 16 years and directing the local bodies to register all the marriages of Muslim women in the age group of 16-18 and men below 21, the unilateral pro-Muslim agenda embarrassed the Congress-led government. Though the circular was withdrawn following widespread protests, a new order was issued authorising such marriages of all communities till June 27, 2013 to be legalised.

The IUML, which has 20 MLAs, started flexing its muscles in April last year with the unilateral announcement from party president Panakad Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal about its fifth minister in the state Cabinet violating all coalition discipline. Despite sharp criticism from various quarters, including the Congress, the IUML leadership stuck to the stand saying that the party supremo, who is also the top spiritual leader of the Muslim community in the state, could not withdraw his statement. IUML national treasurer and Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty even took Thangal to Chandy’s residence at Puthupally in Kottayam and the Congress leadership yielded to the demand.

Though projected as a secular political party, some kind of extremist tendencies have become evident among the IUML rank and file. The party ministers declined to light the traditional lamp during inaugural ceremonies, an age-old custom prevailing in the state, allegedly calling it a Hindu tradition. IUML leader and Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb demanded a change in the name of his official residence ‘Ganga’ and later renamed it as ‘Grace’. Later, a circular issued by Education Department asking women teachers to wear green blouse while attending an official function had kicked up another controversy. Various teachers’ unions protested alleging vested interests behind the circular as green is the colour of the IUML flag.

“Whenever a difficult situation arises for the UDF in general and the IUML in particular, the IUML leadership immediately makes contact with the Congress high command in Delhi completely overlooking the party state leadership,” said A M Shinas, a political observer.

Moreover, rumours are rife that IUML state leadership has plans to press for bifurcation of the Malappuram district and demand four seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls against its usual quota of two seats—Malappuram and Ponnani.

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