Amid reports of the Union goverment planning to enforce a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), Kerala's ruling CPI(M) on Monday, September 26, said such a measure will not help end the activities of extremist organisations. Addressing a public meeting organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) at Kattakkada, CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan argued that enforcing a ban on extremist organisations will further strengthen communalism. On Tuesday, he also said that if such a step has to be taken then Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) should be the first organisation to be banned.
The CPI(M) state secretary further said that when two communal forces confront each other, they make each other stronger and "that is what is going on now" be it RSS or a minority communal group. He also answered in the negative when asked whether the Left front joined hands with such organisations to win elections in local body polls.
"An extremist organisation cannot be eliminated through a ban. If action is taken against only one part of extremism, it will further strengthen communalism," Govindan said. The CPI(M) leader alleged that both majority and minority communal outfits were targeting the ruling Left in Kerala. Govindan's statement comes amid growing demand for enforcing a ban on PFI following last week's raids and arrest of the outfit’s leaders by multi-agency teams, spearheaded by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), at 93 locations in 15 states for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country. Kerala, where the PFI has some strong pockets, accounted for the maximum number of 22 arrests.The arrests were made by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and police forces of the states concerned.
Govindan’s statement also comes a day after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda alleged that Kerala was now a "hotspot" of terrorism and fringe elements and that life was not safe in the state. “If an organisation has to be banned, then it has to be RSS. It is the main organisation carrying out communal activities. Will it be banned? Banning an extremist organisation will not address the problem. RSS has been banned in the past. The CPI has been banned … Banning an organisation will not end it or its ideology. They would only come back with a new name or identity. We need to create awareness against such groups and take legal action against them when they commit any illegality," he told reporters.
Govindan was referring to the ban on CPI in 1950 and the bans on RSS in pre and post-independence India. Govindan further said that RSS, BJP and the Sangh Parivar are presently seeking the ban on PF.I "So if communal forces are to be banned, RSS will have to be the first one. But that is not going to happen in the present political scenario in the country," he added.
PFI, whose hundreds of leaders were recently arrested and its offices raided across the country, had called a hartal in Kerala on September 23 during which its activists had allegedly engaged in violence resulting in damage to buses and public property. Regarding what happened on September 23, Govindan said that while the government and the Left party were not against hartals, as everyone has the right to protest, it was not in favour of violence and destruction of property in the name of agitations.
"The Chief Minister has said strict action would be taken against those who engaged in violence during the hartal. Damaging buses, attacking passengers and destruction of public property is what happened in the name of hartal … Strict action will be taken against those involved," Govindan said.
A special court in Kochi in Kerala on September 24, granted the NIA the custody of 11 PFI members, who were arrested on September 22 as part of the nation-wide crackdown against the organisation. The NIA special court granted the agency custody of the accused till September 30. The accused, who were taken to the court, raised slogans against the probe agency. In a remand report submitted before the court, the NIA also alleged that PFI encouraged youths to join terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda. According to reports, the NIA also submitted to the court that the PFI sought to form an alternative justice delivery system which justifies the use of criminal force.