[Two report stories on PFI Bangalore conference were published in our 18-24 February and 4-10 March 2007 issues. They were written by Pervez Bari, who should have checked the antecedent of the said communal organisation. We regret they found space in Radiance inadvertently. — Editor.]
It looks strange when somebody says that we are the saviours of the Muslim community. In two recent issues of Radiance I found a story about the Empower India Conference, held at Bangalore in the month of February by Popular Front of India. Many people may not know about this organisation. The report has highlighted the focus of the conference, where it has focused on empowering the Muslim community by getting equal share in the power.
Having said this they should have detailed who is behind this conference. It would have been more relevant for the readers. Popular Front of India (PFI) is originated by the detergence of three different organisations of three South Indian states – NDF (National Development Front) of Kerala, KFD (Karnataka Forum for Dignity) of Karnataka and MNP of Tamil Nadu. The journey started from the formation of NDF in Kerala. Right from the first day they have maintained and concealed their aims and objectives. They appeared as human rights activists, later they started indulging people from other organisations saying that it is a common platform for all the organisations. It is a bit late that the community realised that they are promoting counter communalism by exploiting the emotions of the youth and by floating money they have to drive large numbers of youths to this. This has led the youth to retaliation.
Then the later stage they have stressed on political power and many workers started infiltrating into other organisations like IUML, KNM and other Muslim organisations. In many cases these organisations have backed them in the past, but they have paid the price and all the organisations, except Milli Council, have condemned this organisation for its communal attitude. They justify this menace by pretending that they are defending the community. At least in Kerala, people have realised that they cannot even defend their own family.
Recently the massacre that took place in Tirur, Kerala, where they have killed one from the Hindu community, as revenge and ran away leaving hundreds of Muslims in a dodgy situation. The state of affairs got tensed in the entire Malabar valley; many were injured in the counter attack, but sad to say that we did not find our community army. NDF, KFD and MNP have maintained that secrecy about their aims and objectives right from day first. You don’t find any written materials about them, where they introduce themselves. All the meetings were conducted under dark room. People started suspecting them and their activities. They state that they are to provide common platform for the community. This has not cleared the skeptic layer, they have brought these three organisations together and formed PFI (Popular Front of India).
The Tirur incident compelled the other Muslim organisations to send strong message by condemning this act of violence, where for the first time in media they named the role of NDF in igniting the problem. In between they have launched the Empower India Conference at Bangalore. Prior to this each district of Karnataka and other states too have witnessed “Virat Hindu Samavesh” by saffron brands. This has gifted them platform to drive a huge number of youth towards this conference. The launching was by conducting rallies and other public programmes at Mysore. This programme too attracted a huge number of youths. So, it is claiming to be a Muslim organisation but in fact no Muslim organisation worth considering has recognised them as a Muslim organisation.
However, Popular Front of India (PFI) is trying to show their moderate face, but again it will come back with its own agenda, that will tarnish the image of the community which is already in the edge. Whatever may be the reason to justify a different organisation, this should not be encouraged for the reasons which I have mentioned above. I am putting this argument just because this magazine has published two report stories on this organisation. I believe these factors have gone unnoticed by the writer of these stories.