Shiban Khaibri
“The time to repair a roof is when the sun is shining” and as a natural corollary, it would be very difficult to do the same in a rainstorm, is well known to us. It is equally unfortunate for and a disservice to the country if some of us either choose to look the other way and prefer to remain silent or look at the problem to find how political capital could be milked out of it . It is also sheer abdication of duty towards the nation in case we take the plea that the problem was from and around a particular state and why should we feel the pinch since the “trouble” did not ” trouble ” us so far. It is all the more rue – able if someone looks at a particular potent danger to the peace, national security and territorial integrity of the country from the prism of religion. We fairly know how galling was the hypocrisy displayed by Mulayam Singh Yadav government in UP when SIMI surfaced from an educational campus by declaring it as an “innocent” cultural organization. The fetishistic love for that organization proved too costly to be borne as results very soon proved exactly and as rightly feared.
We have peculiar trend in some pockets of the country which stink of unpatriotic and hostile approach towards the concept of India and its thousands of years’ legacy of belief in peace, tolerance and upholding of the principle of mutual co- existence. Plurality emanates and sustains from that great classical philosophy of this country. The tragedy is that certain groups and organizations adopt sectarian and even exclusive ambitions and are employing ways of different nature towards achieving their objectives. It could be in the garb of some NGOs, Human Rights champions, Saviors of environment and ecology,, “Upholding and protecting” minority rights, religious missionaries and the like and instead of what they appear both by name and by supposed functions, might in fact be indulging in unlawful activities prejudicial to the peace and tranquility in the society and inimical to the interests of the country. That is quite unfortunate and still more unfortunate is some political parties or ideologues justifying their activities.
The extreme Leftist or hard core Communists have been pursuing political philosophies which were in vogue or had some relevance a century ago when conflicts between those who owned means of production exclusively and those who had none and largely were dependent on that powerful class. The developments which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in late 1991 even to lowering of the hammer – sickle flag from the ruling Kremlin to be replaced by the Russian Tricolor. As many as fifteen different countries came out of the “great” disintegration. Did ultimately capitalism win ? Did the concept of true democracy bloom in Russia also in whatever form? Did Totalitarianism vanquish ? Did, again Socialism take a back seat? Did the inalienable philosophy of bloody revolution in communist concept as a mode of social change get fully redundant? Was abolition of free markets central to demise of the Communist movement? These are some vital questions which in our country are relevant looking to how Communism in extreme form is still being pursued as a political tool to bring in the rule of the “proletariat” with the same old obsolete tools.
There is extreme democracy in our country. By “extreme”, is meant full liberty of expression, dissent, opposing the policies of the government not to speak of various forms of rights constitutionally guaranteed uniformly to all citizens of the country irrespective of religion, caste, colour, region, gender and language. Unfortunately, it has been observed that in the pursuit of “removing class discrimination” related to economic conditions, the Leftist leaning Parties are appearing to be less tolerant to difference of opinion while difference of opinion is fundamental to functioning of democracy.
In the state of Kerala, we have been observing the displaying of both intolerance to difference of opinion and political thought to the extent of silencing the other view as well as religious fundamentalism getting catapulted to the extent of landing at adopting or glorifying terror. Killing of workers and activists of parties holding different but very patriotic views has been the ugliest face of this scenario. The irony is that neither the Communist led LDF government in power in that state nor the communist thinkers appear to move away from dotted lines of the obsolete doctrines. After the Soviet Russia, even in China dissensions, differences and modifications are emerging fast which has led to dilution of the hard Communist movement but here in India the thinking of the followers of communism remains more or less the same.
Again, in this very state of Kerala, a problem of imminent National dimensions having bearing on political, social and security aspects has got to be understood and remedial measures taken before it is late. An organization known as Popular Front of India (PFI) is known as an Islamist fundamentalist Organization mainly operating from the state. It came up as a successor to National Development Front in 2006. The organization has been accused of various anti social and anti national activities. Starting from religious extremism, the organization has been found engaged in arms possession and training its cadre in handling arms. It is also accused of launching of hate campaigns and even forced conversions. PFI reinvented itself using the cadre of SIMI as it has been observed that SIMI radical extremist sleepers are in the PFI. Why should extremism or leaning towards terror be associated with any organization and in that case , why should such organizations not be contained, halted and even banned. Very recently, it was revealed that three ISIS terrorists killed in Syria were PFI activists which interestingly but alarmingly was not denied by the said organization. In 2012, the government of Kerala with Leftist leaning and soft towards radicalization of particular groups of the society, could not resist itself filing a report in the High court about the activities of the PFI being “inimical to the safety of the country and that the organization is the resurrection of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in another form.” In April 2013, the Police raids across the centers of the Front found not only incriminating terror literature but lethal weapons, human shooting targets, bombs, gun powder etc which the Police claimed to be the terror face of the Front. Pro – Palestine protests and “I am Gaza” like campaigns have been other activities of the Front. It is the hard core religious fundamentalism that paves way , very often, for secessionist and anti national activities.
No wonder, the National Investigating Agency (NIA) has submitted a report to the Home Ministry about this organization and its political arm, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) with the recommendations to ban them terming their activities as “threat to National security”. Founding members of the PFI formed the core team of SIMI. It may be recalled that SIMI was banned in 2001 . The report sounds bells of alarm as it claims that the PFI has its operations spread to as many as 23 states where volunteers are recruited and indoctrinated to the hilt. Recently a top TV Channel accessed a report of SDPI having a “strong base” in Gujarat. Let Leftists, fundamentalists, lavish secularists and liberal democrats not remain silent when it concerns the nation. Nation comes first, yes quite first.
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