KOZHIKODE: Accusing the CPM and the state police of carrying out a witch-hunt against its cadre in the wake of the murder of an SFI activist, the SDPI (Social Democratic Party of India) on Thursday said it will take out protest rallies at all district headquarters on Friday.
It will be followed by a statewide campaign from July 20 to 30 against the ‘terror’ unleashed by the police and the attempts by CPM workers to tarnish SDPI’s image.
SDPI state president Abdul Majeeed Faisi told reporters the state government was using the police to raid SDPI’s party offices and the houses of its leaders in the wake of the Maharaja’s college incident in which SFI leader Abhimanyu was murdered.
“Hundreds of our workers and leaders were taken into preventive custody across the state. The party will resist such moves legally and politically,” said Faisi.
He said CPM was scared of the growing mass appeal of SDPI among people, which prompted it to raise baseless allegations against the party. He also flayed the CPM’s policy of belittling people’s movements and branding protesters as terrorists.
On Minister K T Jaleel’s statement favouring a ban on SDPI, Faisi said Jaleel seemed to hold some ‘personal grudge’ against SDPI even though CPM was against banning political outfits. He also rubbished reports of an intelligence warning SDPI cadre had infiltrated the CPM.
On whether SDPI will withdraw the support it extended to CPM in some of the gram panchayats in the wake of the latter’s offensive, Faisi said there won’t be any impact on political adjustments done at the local level. He also denied reports one of the key suspects in the SFI activist’s murder was an SDPI worker.
Though SDPI condemned the murder politics of the Campus Front, Faisi said it did not bar activists of the students’ outfit from becoming SDPI members.
On whether the party conducted an internal inquiry to find out whether the accused were its members, Faisi said the matter was being examined by the local leadership concerned.