By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kozhikode: The Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan has again turned against Muslims with his new statement that ‘there is a deliberate move to make the state a Muslim-majority one in 20 years’. He reportedly accused the Popular Front of India of being behind it and added that the raids and others were part of the government measures to curb such moves. Widespread protest and criticism have arisen against this statement of the CM, which has come at a time when communal elements are supposed to be working strongly in the otherwise secular Kerala society.
The Chief Minister said in Delhi on Saturday that young men were influenced, paid money and converted to Islam and deliberate efforts were on to increase the Muslim population of the state by marriage, according to reports. He denied the allegations that innocents were tortured in the name of the PFI-hunt. Instead, he said that the allegation was a way to help the terrorists. They began with the NDF and provided money, weapons and training to young men. Now they are trying to contest in elections.
Criticism
Widespread protest and criticism have arisen in the state against the statement of the CM. Religious, cultural and political leaders opined that the words of the CM resembled those of the fascists. The statement would only help increase mutual distrust and rivalry in the society. The Congress, Muslim League and several Muslim organizations responded that the statement was against the whole Muslim community.
Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy said that the CM’s statement criticizing the whole Muslim community naming the PFI would have dangerous consequences. It is not right to blame a whole community for the crime done by certain organizations. The UDF would fully support any move against terrorist organizations including the PFI. But the effort to create distance between the majority and minority communities is a trick played by the CPI (M) for the elections.
The worry of loss of power is behind the statement of the CM, said Muslim League general secretary PK Kunhalikkutty. The CM made such a low and disgusting statement only to help the PFI and the RSS. It is not wrong to think that the statement was made in consensus with the communal organizations. The CM has talked in the words of Togadia and Narendra Modi. It is also noteworthy that the CPI (M)’s mouthpiece ‘Deshabhimani’ daily has ignored the statement, he added. The CM’s statement is insulting to his position, said Muslim League president Syed Hyderali Shihab Thangal. The CM should stop saying this and that like small children. It is not rational at all to attack a community to hide the problems in the party, he added.
VS Achuthanandan had showed his intolerance towards Muslims earlier also and now all the communalism in his mind has come out without any guise, said EM Abdurahman, PFI chairman. CPI (M) can decide whether it is right for VS to use the style of Narendra Modi. However, it is insulting to secular Kerala that the words of Gujarat CM have come out from a CM of Kerala. The statement clearly tells that the present Muslim hunt is not aimed at the PFI or any Muslim organisation but the whole community as such, he added. Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan has proved that he was not capable to hold his post, said the state secretariat of the Social Democratic Party of India. The CM has violated the oath by making the statement which creates communal tension. His words state that the arrival of the SDPI as the spokesmen of backward-Dalit-minority politics has enraged him. The CM should make it clear why their entry into politics should worry him, it added.
The CM has taken up the argument that the Sangh Parivar organizations have been propagating for a long time, said Jamat e Islami Amir T Arifali. The statement was a part of taking the soft-Hindutva policy that the CPI (M) has adopted recently to a stronger level. He reminded that if CPI (M) was playing the Hindu card, other parties could play the card better. The CM’s statement is insulting to the whole Kerala society, said P Mujeeb Rahman, Solidarity president. The immature and irresponsible statements will not contribute anything to the society but will lead to communal tension also. The CM should apologize to Keralites for the irresponsible statement, he added. The statement is a trick to insult the Muslim community in the name of the PFI and to appease the Sangh Parivar, opined the Dakshin Kerala Jam’iyathul Ulema. The CM should resign and apologise as he has abused the Muslim community in such a way as to create communal tension by turning the Hindu-Christian communities against Muslims, said Adv A Pookunhu, general secretary of the Kerala Muslim Jamat Council. The Council also asked the Governor to carry out prosecution measures against the CM for making communal statements.
The CM’s statement was one never to have been from a responsible person, said INL president SA Puthiyavalappil. He added that a clear political agenda could be suspected in the changing of the CM’s words to that of the Sangh Parivar’s. The CPI (M) should decide whether it is apt to continue with a Chief Minister who made such a statement, said Muslim Education Society president Dr Fasal Gafoor. He added that the CPI (M) leadership should make it clear whether the statement was made in their knowledge or not. The Chief Minister who has committed a violation of oath should resign his post, said the Muslim Employees Cultural Association.
The SKSSF responded that the effort of the CM to portray the whole Muslim community as terrorists naming the PFI is condemnable. The statement of the CM is strengthening to communal strife, said Palayam Imam Moulvi Jamaludheen Mankada. The CM is repeating the fake allegations – such as islamisation, religious conversion, increasing population etc – raised against the Muslim community for a long time. It is the first time in the history of Kerala that a Chief Minister with Constitutional powers is trying to divide people on communal lines, said T Abdurahman Baqawi, Imams’ Council president. The Chief Minister is trying to hunt the Muslim community again by the fake propaganda of the ‘love jihad’ which even the court has rejected, he added. The Nadvathul Mujahideen and the ISM condemned the CM’s statement as insulting to the Muslim community. They asked the CM to withdraw his dangerous statement.
The CM made such a statement as he was sure terrorist organizations including the PFI would help the UDF in the coming elections, said BJP president V Muraleedharan. The statement shows double standards. If the CM is sincere, he should throw out Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who helped the terrorist organizations grow.