T’PURAM/KOZHIKODE: The ideology of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and allied organisations is unlikely to fizzle out following the ban. Going by past experience, the cadre of the outlawed outfits will soon be seen working with new bands with different name and form.
Soon after announcing the disbandment of the outfit, PFI leader Abdul Sathar has made it clear that they would take legal course of action against the ban. In all likelihood, the outfit will use its political arm SDPI to fight the Union government.
These organisations may again come up under some other name, says A M Shinas, assistant professor of history at Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. Strictly enforcing the rule of law, without bias will help prevent the activities of such fringe organisations to a major extent. Along with this, counter campaigns should be run to ideologically check them.
“Both the Sangh Parivar and the PFI are complementary to each other. In fact, Muslim fringe organisations are only aggravating the existing insecurity feeling among a section of Muslims. These outfits are fostering the Sangh Parivar politics. Ideally the sangh parivar should be opposed from a secular platform. Organisations like PFI further weaken this secular setup,” Shinas said.
Looking back, the National Development Front (NDF), which later became the PFI, had enjoyed the political support of a section in the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leadership at several stages of its activities. The NDF’s organisational structure had allowed its workers to join any political party other than the BJP. Accordingly, the NDF activists had worked in various political parties, majority of them with IUML.
The IUML membership was a safe cover for the NDF men because it helped them use the League’s political clout to salvage themselves from troubles. The phenomenon had given the IUML a big headache, especially in areas such as Nadapuram.
The dual membership had created controversies when the UDF was in power. One such incident was the ‘Arimbra case’ that had hit headlines in 2004. NDF workers had attacked a Congressman during a football match at Arimbra in Malappuram. The provocation was that the Congress worker had exposed the League cover the NDF workers were using. Later, the government issued an order to withdraw the case against the NDF workers following the recommendation of a Muslim League leader. There was a big hue and cry when TNIE exposed the incident.
Eminent writer Kamala Surayya had said in an interview that the NDF workers, psoing as Muslim League men, gave protection to her when she faced threats after her conversion to Islam. (Kamala Surayya stated wrongly that the NDF workers were posing as Muslim League men because there was ban on NDF).
The dual membership issue had snowballed into a major controversy forcing the then League state general secretary Korambayil Ahamed Haji to take a strong position that NDF workers should not be given membership in the party. But even after that, some League leaders continued hobnobbing with the NDF.