I am writing this in response to your reports on PFI Bangalore conference appeared in your 18-24 February and 4-10 March 2007 issues.
The conference conducted under the banner of Popular Front of India is, in short, old wine in new bottle. The Popular Front of India is neither popular nor a front but an extremist caucus controlled by unwise and short-sighted persons.
Major constituent of this front is N.D.F. (National Development Front) which finds its relevance through controversies. The rest two organisations from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are only letterhead organisations. These organisations have no good track record at all.
In Kerala the activities of N.D.F. are of negative nature. Lack of positive approach and aggressive and hatred-provoking attitude have gained for them a lot of adverse opinions. The Holy Qur’an repeatedly reminds us of our basic duty of propagation and encouragement of good values and deeds and eradication of evils. In all the contexts the Holy Qur’an has given top preference to propagation of good values. Eradication of evils comes later only. This means construction is first and foremost. It is only a fact that if we put on a light the darkness will vanish. Lamenting the harm of darkness or blaming somebody for it will not bring about any positive result.
Construction is the positive approach. Negative approaches only create misunderstandings, hatred and irritation. Provocations will not prove helpful in the way of preaching and propagation. Rather it will put obstacles in the way of preaching and propagation. The track record of N.D.F. in Kerala is only of provocations and subsequent harmful reactions. All the religious organisations (Sunnis, Salafis and others) have come out against N.D.F’s provocative and problem-creating style of functioning.
At present the Muslim League also is against N.D.F. Several Muslim leaders of different political parties also have condemned the working style of N.D.F. The public image of N.D.F has hence become ugly. In such a situation N.D.F is trying to appear in disguise under an “all India” banner. The Empower India Conference held in Bangalore is only a part of this strategic attempt to appear in disguise on the part of N.D.F.
The coverage given by Radiance for this conference, in fact, will give some mileage for the tricky gimmicks of extremist outfits. Actually the pages of Radiance have been misused. I have written this much to save the readers from grave misunderstanding and confusion.