By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Thiruvananthapuram: The Muslim League will not have any alliance or relation with the Jamaat-e-Islami in the up-coming three-tier panchayat elections, said PK Kunhalikkutty, Kerala general secretary of the Muslim League.
Kunhalikkutty was speaking at the face-to-face programme organized by the Kesari Memorial Journalist Trust. The Muslim League will strongly oppose the ideas of the Jamaat, he added.
Mr Kunhalikkutty said that there would not be any sort of understanding with the Jamaat. The League always saw the Jamaat-e-Islami as a religious organization. It has representatives in the Hajj Committee and the Waqf Board. All parties have called the JIH for meetings of religious organizations. The League held discussions with it as to how to view it in the changed circumstances when the JIH decided to be a political organization. Now that the Jamaat has decided to become a political party, the League has decided not to invite it even to the meetings of religious organizations. The League had brought together the Jamaat also like the sunni and mujahid groups, but now it is difficult to see it as a religious organization.
The Jamaat-e-Islami has always been with the Left Democratic Front, and never with the UDF. It has not voted for us. The League follows a politics of communal harmony, but parties like these have a different attitude. The League cannot agree to it. The League will oppose them just as it opposes fascism, he added.
The decision of the Jamaat-e-Islami to let its members play an active role in the up-coming three-tier panchayat elections has led to heated debates in the political circles in Kerala. The recent discussions came up when the leaders of the Muslim League held talks with the Jamaat leaders last month in Calicut. While the ML general secretary PK Kunhalikkutty maintained the discussions were only about community issues, Jamaat Amir T Arifali said that they had discussed politics also. When an air was formed that the League may have a tie-up or understanding with the Jamaat, criticism came from many sides including Muslim religious organizations. The Muslim League then was forced to deny any scope of alliance with the Jamaat as the move was opposed in the party’s working committee also.
The Jamaat had supported candidates of both political fronts earlier, but decided to give complete support to the Left Democratic Front in the last Assembly elections. In the last general elections also, it supported the LDF in 18 of the 20 constituencies. However, it had always criticized the anti-people moves of the government such as the problems in the education field. The Kinalur road issue and the protests related to it brought the organization and its youth wing Solidarity Youth Movement to limelight as the Solidarity was in forefront of the protests. The discussions with the leaders of the Muslim League took place following the joint protests of the two parties in Kinalur.