On April 17th, K. Surendran, the BJP State president, criticized the LDF government’s handling of terrorist activities, blaming their “soft” approach for the train arson incident at Elathur. He demanded that the Home department controlled by the Chief Minister provide a clear answer as to who aided the accused in committing the crime.
Surendran further alleged that the police failed to take sufficient action against those who helped the accused and accused the government of compromising with radical elements in the state for the sake of votes. He demanded an investigation into whether the police’s failure allowed the accused to escape and for the case to be given to the NIA for further investigation.
Recently, following the police’s confirmation of a terror angle, the Kochi unit of the NIA took over the investigation into the Kozhikode train arson case. The incident took place on April 2, 2023, when a man set fire to coach number D1 of the Alappuzha-Kannur Express near Elathur railway station in Kozhikode district. There was a visible delay in the whole procedure by the ruling government. The slow response of the state government and its police department in dealing with the issue raises questions about state government’s commitment to national security. Despite the grave nature of the situation, the ruling communist government downplayed the incident initially raising eyebrows regarding the ruling dispensation’s intent.
Communist Government’s Lax Attitude
Ruling communist dispensation’s lax attitude while dealing with issues of Islamic terrorism is well documented. Previously back in December 2022, BJP’s Kerala Vice President KS Radhakrishnan has hit out at the ruling LDF-led government as well as the previous UDF regime in the state for promoting terrorism by failing to act against the Popular Front of India (PFI), which has been proscribed by the Centre.
“There’s an unfortunate situation in Kerala, both the LDF and the UDF governments keep unanimity in promoting terrorism. Economically, socially, and religiously powerful groups are promoting terrorism. The Kerala Police doing nothing against the PFI, they are providing them help,” the BJP leader said. He further stated that. “A strong group is promoting terror activities in Kerala and getting financial assistance from abroad “Instead of curbing them, the Kerala government is providing facilities for the terror group,” Radhakrishnan stated. According to Radhakrishnan, “Jamaat-e-Islami publicly admitted that they got money to establish groups of media in Kerala with the help of Islamic funding.” He claimed that these parties remain unchallenged in Kerala, giving a context to their actions. “PFI has been assisted by popular members of the LDF and the UDF,” Radhakrishnan told ANI.
He further claimed that Islamic organisations were funding significant political parties such as the UDF and the LDF. He claimed that the government was not acting against PFI despite the court orders. “Either the government of Kerala is afraid of the Islamic groups or they have been sufficiently compensated by the Islamic terror groups,” the BJP leader added. He demanded a clarification from the Chief Minister of Kerala in this regard. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday submitted in the Special NIA Court at Kochi that the banned PFI leaders in Kerala were in touch with some of the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda leaders. NIA also submitted that there is a secret wing of PFI working to prepare a hit list of people belonging to other communities and their activities were centred around the PFI office.
It was also revealed that the accused Shahrukh Saifi was a highly radicalized man and had watched Zakir Naik videos. He had also done a recee on the premises of the railway station until boarding the train.
Is There Merit In The BJP’s Accusations?
On 19 December, the Kerala High Court of Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar asked the state government the reason for the delay in attaching the properties of the terrorist organization PFI (Popular Front of India). Earlier, the court had ordered the state government to recover Rs 5.20 crore from the office-bearers of the now-banned PFI and its State General Secretary, Abdul Sathar. PFI terrorists had caused widespread damage and violence after calling for a flash hartal on 23 September.
The callous attitude of the state government came on top of several incidents of violence, including stone pelting reported throughout Kerala in response to a strike called by Popular Front of India (PFI) halting life in the state on 23rd September. It had resulted in the arrest of as many as 500 people in the state along with preventive detention of another 400.
Reports of hurling of bombs, breaking of public life and chanting of anti-national slogans filled the airwaves throughout the nation on that day of violence. The state government’s slow reaction had raised many eyebrows and questioned their credibility in responding to instances of national security importance which necessitated urgent action. This puts into open why the state government adopted a slow reaction in stark contrast to the whirlwind approach adopted by the central agencies such as NIA and ED?
The Politics Of ‘Soft Touch’
The politics of ‘soft touch’ approach adopted by CPI(M) can be traced back in time There have been allegations and reports of ties between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM and radical Islamists in Kerala. One such instance was the 2006 Kalamassery bus burning case, where a group of radical Islamist activists belonging to the National Development Front (NDF) burned a bus in Kalamassery as part of a protest a visit by then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
It was alleged that some of the activists involved in the incident were CPM members, and that the party had supported their actions. instance was the controversial visit of PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani, an accused in the 2008 Bangalore blasts case, to the CPM headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram in 2014. The visit sparked protests alleging that the CPM was cosying up to terrorists. Another instance was the 2012 T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case, where a former CPM leader was killed by a group of assailants allegedly hired by the party.
According to reports, some of the assailants had links to radical Islamist groups such as the Popular Front of India (PFI). In 2018, a senior leader of the CPM, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, was accused of shielding a CPM member who was allegedly involved in the murder of an RSS worker in Kannur. The RSS worker’s family had alleged that Balakrishnan’s son Binoy was also involved in the murder, and that Balakrishnan had used his political influence to protect him. However, Balakrishnan denied the allegations and said that the CPM had no links with extremist elements.
In 2020, it was alleged that the CPM was providing shelter to two women who were arrested by the NIA for their alleged involvement in the ISIS Khorasan module. The women had reportedly been expelled from the PFI, and the CPM was accused of helping them evade arrest. However, the CPM denied the allegations and said that they had no links with any extremist groups. In another instance, the NIA had reportedly found that a CPM leader’s son-in-law had close links with the PFI. The leader, P Jayarajan, had allegedly given a job to his son-in-law in a government-owned company, despite the latter being on the run from the police in a PFI-related case. Jayarajan had denied the allegations and said that his son-in-law had no links with any extremist groups. These allegations have led to criticism of the CPM’s alleged ties with extremist elements and their failure to act against them.
Back in 2018, when news came that Kerala had asked for a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and then Director General of Police Loknath Behera were quick to deny the report. “It is not the Kerala government’s policy to ban any communal or terrorist outfit. If any outfit that creates riots in India and divides society on communal lines needs to be banned, then it should be the RSS first. Such organisations cannot be countered with a ban and this has been proved by our experience in the past.”, he said.
The CM’s statement did not come as a surprise for political critics in the state, since the CPI (M)’s lenient attitude towards the PFI and its political outfit, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) has been an open secret. CPI (M) has even been accused of closing its eyes or even quietly supporting the radical activities of the PFI and its allied outfits for many years. However, things took a dramatic turn after the murder of Abhimanyu, leader of the CPI (M) students’ wing Students Federation of India (SFI). The prime accused, who is the president of the Campus Front of India (CFI), a student wing of PFI, at Maharaja’s College, was arrested. In a massive crackdown, nearly 600 SDPI activists have been taken into custody and questioned about Abhimanyu’s murder – a visible gesture of the CPI (M)’s changed stand that it will not tolerate the PFI anymore as one of its trusted comrades. But certain realities still dawn on the party and it is evident that the party still adopts soft touch approach against the radicalists. This reality is clear from party’s renewed attempt to bring IUML in to its fold.
Kerala: Islamist’s Own Country
Kerala is a state which is cursed by radical Islamic tendencies. For example, as per a recent investigation, since 2009 – nearly 32,000 girls from Kerala and Mangalore from Hindu and Christian communities have been converted to Islam and most of them end up landing in Syria, Afghanistan, and other ISIS and Haqqani influential areas. Plenty of Kerala men and women are said to have joined the ISKP (Islamic State of Khorasan Province) in recent years. The United Nations warned in its 2020 terrorism report that there are a substantial number of ISIS terrorists in the Indian state of Kerala. The threat of radicalism and terrorism are few among major challenges faced by the world today and it poses substantial risk to stability and harmony of our society. Terrorism certainly poses major challenges in our society too. Former PM of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee once stated that, ‘Terrorism has become a festering wound. It is an enemy of humanity.’ And it is high time the Kerala government start taking the issue seriously without being swayed by vote bank or appeasement and start taking stern actions against fringe elements on ground for the sake of India’s national security.
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