By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : The Congress Saturday blamed the “vote bank politics” of Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) for the rise of terrorist activities in the state.
“Look back at the three elections – for the local bodies, the state assembly and the Lok Sabha: the Left took the help of the National Development Front (NDF), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Jamat-e-Islami. And because of that, it has a soft corner for these three organizations,” state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala told reporters here.
The NDF, PDP and the Jamat-e-Islami are considered fundamentalist Muslim organizations. The NDF and PDP are under a cloud as some of their supporters have been picked up by the police after four youngsters from Kerala were found to be among the five militants killed in a shootout in Jammu and Kashmir last month.
“The Left government appears to have a soft stand and this is the primary reason why Kerala today has become a safe haven for organizations conducting all sorts of (terrorist) training camps. The intelligence department has turned out to be an abject failure and is unable to do anything,” Chennithala maintained.
Reacting to his comments, LDF convenor Vaikom Viswan, after a meeting of the front’s state committee, said: “We have on several occasions made our stand clear that we have had no electoral understanding with the NDF. With regards to PDP, over the years they have changed their earlier stance and the Jamat-e-Islami’s political stand is very clear.”
He added that the minority Muslims sided with the LDF due to the wrong policies of the Congress-led United Democratic Front government (2001-06).
“Since then, they have tried their best to wean away these organizations from us and they come out with baseless allegations on several occasions,” added Viswan.
Meanwhile, the UDF is kicking off a state-wide anti-terrorism campaign Nov 4, while the LDF is organizing a four-day campaign in the second week of this month.