By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Thrissur: The CPI (M) is using the Hindu communal card seeing the elections approaching, accused T Arifali, Kerala president of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. The frequent statements of the CPI (M) state general secretary Pinarayi VIjayan against the Jamaat-e-Islami are a part of it. The efforts to play the communal card naming the Christian and Muslim minorities will have serious consequences in the state in the long run. He was speaking at the Meet the Press programme of the Thrissur Press Club.
Arifali said that the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind was against the policies of the Kashmir Jamat e Islami. There are problems in Kashmir and they should be solved through talks. Our opinion is that the people of Kashmir too are rightly ours just like the land of Kashmir, he said as a response to the criticism of the CPI (M) general secretary. Accusing connections between JIH and Kashmir Jamat is like saying that the CPI (M) and the Maoists are connected. Mr Pinarayi Vijayan had criticised that the Jamat e Islami had connections with the terrorist organizations of Kashmir and that it did not agree with the country’s official views on Kashmir.
[Photo by topnews.in]
Mr Arifali added that the outlook that the party would decide who was terrorist and moderate shows the haughtiness of the CPI (M). The CPI (M) cannot decide the policies of cultural Kerala as before. There are many other factors also. The CPI (M) leadership should understand that people would go for other ways. Earlier for the CPI (M), the Jamat e Islami was an organisation with clear views on national and international affairs (Pinarayi Vijayan had opined so during the last Parliamentary election campaign). But when the Jamat interfered in the Kinalur issue and brought to light the aims of certain people, it became an anti-democratic terrorist organization. ‘Why did the CPI (M) conceal it in the last four years?’ Arifali asked. The Muslim League’s accusation that the JIH is a communal organisation is baseless. Jamat is an ideological organisation whereas the ML is a community-based organisation. He added that the ML had opposed the JIH even when Gandhiji supported it.
The Jamaat-e-Islami came to news headlines in the state by its involvement in the Kinalur protest and subsequent announcement of its direct entry into the field of elections through the up-coming three-tier panchayat elections. The CPI (M), which the Jamat had given votes to in the last Parliament and Assembly elections, accused the organisation of being terrorist and communal. The Muslim League also attacked the Jamat after its secret talks with the organisation got leaked to the media and a group of members and some other Muslim organizations opposed any alliance between the two organizations. However, the controversies have given much media coverage – both positively and negatively – for the Jamat and the Solidarity Youth Movement more than ever in their history.