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After PFI ban, SDPI tries hard to re-group its cadres in Kerala


With the Popular Front of India (PFI) banned and its top leaders jailed, the outfit’s political wing the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) is trying hard to re-group its cadres and strengthen the party in Kerala.

There are also reports that the Union home ministry may move the Election Commission alleging that the party is reportedly becoming a backyard of the erstwhile cadres of the PFI.

Having learnt a lesson from the re-grouping of the cadres of the erstwhile Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which later led to the formation of many outfits like Indian Mujaheedin, agencies are keeping a close tab on the SDPI, said a senior intelligence official.

The SDPI, which had been keeping a low-profile for three months after the nation-wide crackdown on its parent outfit, has started protests throughout the state with meetings organised outside the state secretariat and Kochi on Jan 26. A senior functionary of the party said that they are also planning rallies in all district headquarters.

“We will bounce back. No one will remain destitute due to the ongoing clamp down and attachment of properties. As a political party we will protect our families and cadres. The party will expose the fascist measures taken by the RSS-controlled government,” said SDPI national president M K Faizy addressing a protest meeting in Kochi on Thursday. He said threat and intimidations will not cow down its cadres and they will take them up in a democratic way.

Many houses, offices and other properties of the PFI leaders (total 248) were confiscated by police and revenue authorities last week after a directive of the high court in connection with destruction of public properties during the PFI bandh in the state on September 24. The state had witnessed large-scale violence a day after its top leaders were arrested and theUunion home ministry enforced a ban on it.

“Inhuman things are being unfolded in the state in the guise of confiscation of properties. Notices were pasted even on the house of Mohmmad Zubair, who was killed by RSS workers in Palakkad at least six months before the ban and bandh, was among them,” said SDPI state president Muvattupuzha Ashraf Maulavi. He accused the Left Democratic Front (LDF) of facilitating the growth of Sangh Parivar ideology in Kerala. He said central intelligence agencies were shadowing them everywhere crippling the political freedom of the party. But LDF convenor E P Jayarajan denied it saying the government was following the directive of the court and it opposed both minority and majority communalism.

“We are keeping a close watch on some of the cadres of the banned PFI and we will not allow their re-grouping in some other names. PFI’s fund-raising channels, propaganda machinery and its secret wing to target opponents are under our close watch,” another senior intelligence officer in Kochi said.

Last week the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a man later identified as Mohammad Sadiq from Kollam and raided his house. A fruit seller by profession, the NIA claimed “he was an intelligence gatherer and reporter of the outfit and prepared a list of possible targets and later handed over them to hit squads.” “Its intelligence and secret services were really baffling,” said the official quoted above.

The SDPI was founded in 2009. The party had contested in many elections since then and its vote percentage was less than one per cent but it holds some seats in local and civic bodies in some Muslim pockets. “It is not easy for the SDPI to re-group cadres of the PFI and strengthen its political face. Its saviour tag has failed to attract community members. Moderate, Muslim League toughens its position when other parties try to take its political space in north Kerala,” said political commentator John Mary.



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