KOZHIKODE: Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) state secretary M K Muneer said his party is a political organisation that was once part of the government led by the country’s pioneering communist leader E M S Namboodiripad. Responding to the chief minister’s query whether the IUML was a political party or a religious organisation, he asked whether ‘Pinarayi was a communist’. Pinarayi Vijayan questioned IUML’s credentials on Friday while speaking at the CPM district conference in Kannur.
Pinarayi was responding to casteist slur and derogatory slogans raised by League leaders and activists during the party’s Waqf Board Protection rally against him and PWD and Tourism Minister Muhamed Riyas.
“Ours is a political party. Now, my question to Pinarayi is whether he is a communist. IUML is a party that had its members in the E M S Namboodiripad government. IUML’s constitution has not been changed,” Muneer told reporters. Reacting to the police filing cases against 10,000 IUML workers who participated in the rally in Kozhikode on Thursday, Muneer said it showed the government was scared by the huge turnout. “Projecting a part of a leader’s speech as the end result of the huge rally is not good,” he said.