KOZHIKODE/MALAPPURAM: In an apparent bid to widen the rift in the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and to attack those opposing the party’s hobnobbing with the LDF, CPM independent MLA P V Anwar on Monday showered encomiums on League leader P K Kunhalikutty.
In a Facebook post, the Nilambur MLA said the “mature” manner in which Kunhalikutty conducted himself during the Tanur boat tragedy needs to be appreciated. “Today’s IUML politics can be divided into two: The first one takes a mature attitude even while firmly rooting in the party’s politics,” Anwar said. He said Kunhalikutty’s stand that saw the tragedy as an issue concerning all and refusal to mix it up with politics belongs to this category. “In fact, Kerala hopes to get a leader of opposition like him,” Anwar said.
Anwar said some IUML leaders who are an “embodiment of arrogance” belong to the second category. The post does not mention the name of K M Shaji but the references point to the League leader. “The politics upheld by Kunhalikutty has raised his graph and this realisation has irked the second group of leaders,” said Anwar.
The MLA said the comment that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan could visit Tanur only because of the IUML’s magnanimity is the outcome of that frustration. It may be recalled that the warmth shown by IUML leaders Panakkad Syed Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal and Kunhalikutty to the chief minister and other LDF leaders during the boat tragedy has left many tongues wagging. Many read political meanings in it in the backdrop of the talks that IUML was anxious to get an entry to the LDF.
The Congress leadership has obliquely complained that Muslim League was not active in the Opposition’s agitations against the government. IUML state secretary K S Hamza, who was later removed from the party, had once asked Kunhalikutty whether he is still in the UDF.
Govt has no vision to take state forward: Thangal
IUML leaders M K Muneer and Shaji have been making fervent attempts to block Kunhalikutty’s efforts to take the party to the LDF fold. Addressing a meeting in Kozhikode on Sunday, Shaji had lashed out at Minister V Abdurahiman alleging that it was the government’s lapses that led to the Tanur tragedy.
Meanwhile, Sadiq Ali Thangal slammed the state government for imposing heavy taxes on the people in Kerala. Inaugurating the ‘Rapakal Samaram’ organised by the party against the central and state governments, Thangal said the price rise in Kerala is hurting the common man the most.
“The worst part is that the state government has turned a blind eye towards the people’s problems. The government has no vision to take the state forward,” he added. He said the UDF would make a comeback in the coming elections in Kerala by learning lessons from the victory in Karnataka. “The victory in Karnataka teaches us that communal agendas can be defeated with campaigns that uphold secular values,” he said.