PFI Article – a Heap of Half-Baked Truths

This much belated rejoinder is due to the still ongoing anti-Jamaat-e-Islami propaganda in Kerala citing the two articles published in Radiance Viewsweekly in two issues 18-24 February 2007 and 4-10 March 2007 regarding the conference of Popular Front of India (PFI) at Bangalore. We were really shocked to see an article which tried to portray a highly communal mysterious group which stands for the armed resistance as a platform to ensure backward communities rights. It is highly objectionable that valuable pages of the weekly which stands for universal brotherhood as promulgated by Islam, was misused for whitewashing an entity which tries to hide its communal colour under the garment of running a human rights organisation. One disturbing fact is that the anti-Jamaat campaigners in Kerala use these two articles as a proof of their allegation that NDF (PFI’s main constituent) is a Jamaat sponsored outfit and the staunch anti-NDF stand taken by JIH Kerala zone is just an eyewash.
In Kerala, it was ISS (Islamic Sevak Sangh) formed by Abdul Nasar Mahadani which raised the need for armed resistance against Hindutva forces. Attracted by the firebrand speeches of its leader many youths assembled under the banner of ISS. But this organisation was banned in the aftermath of Babri Masjid demolition. By encashing the vacuum created by the sudden disappearance of ISS and the feeling of insecurity that prevailed among Muslims in the post-demolition era NDF appeared on the scene in 1993. They disseminated the idea that as the legislature, executive and even the judiciary of the country have failed to safeguard Muslim interests and to give due protection to their life and property, the community should have its own arrangement for self protection and the community members should be physically trained to counter the physical assaults by fascist forces. They gathered their cadres by arranging some secret meetings in which some unknown persons would take class on the necessity of armed resistance to the Hindutva onslaught. After 2-3 preparatory meetings the participants are supposed to take the oath of allegiance to the National Defence Force, which is the real expansion of NDF. The National Development Front is the ornamental expansion they have adopted to evade the attention of authorities. The cadres are strictly instructed not to use the real name in public. The mysteries attached to the preparatory meetings, name of the organisation and the secret place where these meetings took place were the points of attraction to the adventure loving youth.
The first public appearance of NDF was through a seminar on reservation in August 1994 held at Calicut. But they got public attention through a human rights rally held in the same city in December 1994.
The NDF never introduced itself as a Muslim organisation. Even while preaching the idea of physical resistance in secret classes, it always pretended to be a human rights organisation. It justified this double role in the name of Qur’anic concept of Hikmath.
NDF was highly critical of the Muslim leadership of the country for their inability to check the attacks of enemies. It sees that the major drawback of the Muslim community is that it doesn’t have any resistance set-up. It pointed out that the community has organisations to serve its Da’wa, Islahi, milli, political and educational purposes. But NDF was formed, as there is nobody in the community to shoulder the risky responsibility of giving physical protection to it. It alleged that the traditional Muslim organisations are not interested in the real welfare of Ummah as they are more interested in settling scores among themselves. Through these sorts of propaganda it succeeded to some extent in winning the hearts of many Muslim youths who were fed up with the sectarianism among various community groups.
But now looking into the experience of past 14 years we Keralites understand that all these claims were mere farce. Now we see that this group, which was highly critical of others for having magazines and other establishments, has their own newspaper, magazine and mosques. On a close study of how much they could win in giving protection to the community members we can see that they have not only miserably failed in giving any protection but added to the woes of the community.
Till 1995 general public was not aware of the activities of NDF. But in December 1995 fingers of suspicion were pointed towards them when many communal incidents surfaced in connection with a bomb blast that took place in a mosque premises in odd hours in Calicut district in which some NDF activists were seriously injured. They were allegedly involved in making country bombs. NDF’s name was mentioned in many revenge killings. If NDF is the sole Muslim organisation of the state, which bears such an ignominy, they can’t reject it as a handiwork of Islamophobic media syndicate.
It is a well-known fact that Kerala presents a different picture in the case of inter community relations. Here different communities live together and quite contrary to North Indian environs we can’t see any Hindu or Muslim galli without a very few exceptions. Also this small state doesn’t have any history of communal riots except very few communal flare-ups. In such a state this sort of a group tried to make inroads by citing the communal carnages of North Indian cities and the demolition of Babri Masjid. NDF ascertained that the doomed fate of North Indian Muslims is due to the absence of resistance mechanism among the Muslims. But in 2003 at Marad near Calicut, just 10 kms away from the NDF headquarters, the Keralites got an opportunity to see the quality of protection the NDF can provide. In May 2003, six Hindus were massacred in Marad, which was alleged to be in retaliation of the killing of two Muslims the previous year. As a sequel the entire Muslim population of that area was driven out by Hindutva forces and they ‘ruled’ the area for around six months in the real sense. No Muslim was permitted to enter the area and all Muslim houses were looted. Though the government tried two or three times to facilitate the return of the Muslim families, before the stiff resistance of the Hindutva parivar the authorities couldn’t win. Then many hoped that NDF will step in as it is a golden opportunity for them to show their detractors the justification for their existence. They always blamed that the repeated requests of the traditional Muslim leadership to keep restraint in the face of communal tensions have sterilised the community and claimed that the new outfit is trying to revitalise the Ummah. Whenever Jamaat-e-Islami spoke of compassion, harmony and pluralism, NDF took these values as the synonyms of cowardice and when Jamaat reminded the misguided youth of their limitation as Daees to retaliate to fascist forces in the same manner as they do NDF mocked at Jamaat as the preachers of ‘ice-cream brand’ Islam. Though the Marad incident gave them ample opportunity to show their different working style, nothing happened. Even after 10 years of rigorous training its cadre couldn’t do anything for safe return of the Muslim ‘refugees’ of Marad. As a face saving measure, they organised a dharna after few months, that too far away from the area.
Instead of physical resistance NDF is being involved in revenge killings. Their name has been raised in connection with at least six revenge killings within this short span of time. It has undeniable involvement in the communal flare-ups at Nadapuram, Pathanamthitta, Punnad, Marad and now at Tirur. In most of the incidents NDF activists would attack the RSS people under the cover of darkness and all the NDF activists of the area would go in hiding. The police would search each and every Muslim house in the name of search operations. And the fascist forces would utilise the opportunity to loot and arson the Muslim homes which are devoid of any male presence. This happened in Punnad of Kannur district two years back. The Tirur incidents of this year January-February was the exact replica of Punnad. In the third week of January NDF activists hacked one RSS worker to death who was one of the accused in the killing of a Muslim revert, Yasir. This led to communal tensions and many innocent people on both sides were attacked in series of incidents. Instead of providing the promised security for the community all NDF cadres of the area were absconding in safer havens by sending their wives and older ones to the relatives’ houses. Then many asked the question: how can these people who are unable to give security to their nearer ones act as self proclaimed saviours of the entire community? Actually it was a blunder on the part of NDF to trigger a communal violence in Malappuarm, a Muslim majority district whom the fascist forces and national media together try to portray as Mini Pakistan since its inception in 1969. This gave a chance to RSS-BJP combine to highlight their fabricated stories of Hindu persecution at Malappuram.
Anyway, this time all Muslim organisations responded to the clandestine working style of NDF and warned Muslim ummah of the dangers of NDF’s agenda of communally polarising society. Indian Union Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Keala Nadvathul Mujahideen and Samasta Kerala Jam’iyyathul Ulama were unanimous in this regard and they urged the Muslim youth to abstain from NDF activities.
Now by hiding their communal claws under the guise of empowerment of oppressed classes these forces are trying to broaden their avenues to the national level. The formation of Popular Front of India is a calculated step in that direction. If this front succeeds in making any inroads into the North India it will be highly detrimental to the interests of the community. Of course it will vitiate the already communally charged atmosphere of North India and it will widen the communal gulf. The presence of this type of a group will give the already communal law enforcing agencies of North India to peep into all Muslim homes in the name of rooting out terrorism. The PFI leadership sees a vacuum in the national leadership of Muslims and they want to occupy that space. This is a point of concern that some of these communal leaders have managed to obtain berths in Muslim bodies like AIMPLB.
The Radiance report on the PFI conference says that PFI’s chairman lamented the lack of competent leadership and Muslim leaders and ulema have indispensable role in the tragic situation of the community. We believe that it is not a mere coincidence that nowadays the NDF cadres of Kerala are projecting this very chairman as the emerging leader of Indian Muslims. If anybody sees this portrayal of leaders and ulema in bad light as a precursor of elevating himself to the leadership of ummah we cannot blame him.
Within a short period of time NDF, the major constituent of PFI, has proved that it is a forum that is being floated by some power hungry leaders who have lost platform either due to ban or due to extinction of one or the other organisations. These leaders who cannot live without being at the leadership are now using the most dangerous weapon, communalism, to meet their personal ends. For that purpose the frustration of Muslim youth at the inaction of government is being utilised. So it is high time that these ‘Pied Pipers’ who misguide the youth should be restrained and exposed. The magazines like Radiance have a larger role to play in this.
India is a country where there is no dearth of Muslim parties and leaders. Each group claims that they are the sole and authentic party, which strives hard for the real causes of the community. In this backdrop the correspondents and the editors of reputed magazines have larger and serious responsibility of checking the veracity of the tall claims put forwarded by each group. Otherwise the authenticity of the magazine will be at stake. That is what happened with the PFI reports while the Radiance has a long history of untainted and non-communal activism.
It is due to the inherent peculiarity of the ideals of JIH and utmost care being taken by its leaders to educate its cadres on the true Islamic lines that the latter keep from any sort of communal activities. It is very sad to say that some lack of care on the part of a correspondent in ensuring the veracity of the material gave an opportunity to our detractors to pose questions on the non-communal credentials of our magazine. Hope that care will be taken in future not to repeat these sorts of mistakes.