Dr Veda Pratap Vaidik

Popular Front of India (PFI), a militant Muslim organization was under constant scrutiny of different investigating agencies, thanks to their doubtful demeanor and disruptive nature. The recent raids on its offices across the country has brought to light the organisation’s nefarious designs create communal unrest and mayhem in the country.  In India there is no restriction to form organizations in the name of Hindus, Muslims, Christians or any other religion, but if  any organization is engaged inciting violence, promoting  terrorism , encouraging communalism or sedition, then it  needs  to be banned and stringent punitive actions need to be initiated against that erring organization.

SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India), the earlier avatar of PFI was banned by the then Congress government in 2006. SIMI was an Islamist extremist outfit its stated motto was ‘liberation of India through Islam’.  Due to multiple bans and the stringent vigil from security agencies compelled the leaders to bequeath SMI and launched PFI with similar ideology and intention.  There are similar Islamic Islamic militant organizations active in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. They mostly function under the garb of human rights forums.

There are multiple Islamic fundamentalist groups spread across the country camouflaged as political outfits and social organizations. For example, ‘Social Democratic Party of India’ is a political party active in Kerala is conception of the same Islamists fundamentalists. Interestingly you won’t the term ‘Muslim’ attached to any of these organizations, so that their identity is cleverly cloaked.

The raids have revealed that PFI has received crores of rupees from abroad in the name of Islam. This organization was using this ill-gotten money for engineering disruptive activities to destabilize the country and its people. Similar Islamist extremist organizations were said to be involved in the killing of 250 people in a Sri Lankan Church there years ago on Easter Sunday.  Tamil and Malayali Muslims of Sri Lanka were caught by the Lankan Secuurity forces. In Kerala PFI activists had chopped off the hand of Prof T J Joseph, for referring to the Prophet’s name in a question paper he prepared for some internal examination in his college.  Many PFI workers have also been arrested for their involvement in murder and severe physical attacks.

To protest the raid and arrest of their senior leaders by Central investigating agencies, PFI cadre has called for a Harthal in Kerala on last Friday that witnessed unprecedented violence and vandalism across the state. This organization has been banned in the past, but due to lack of concrete evidence, it has been getting exemption.

 My suggestion to the investigating agencies and the government is, make public their findings against PFI.  If the agencies try to keep their findings against PFI covert and continue alleging the organization of disruptive designs, people will doubt the intention of the government and the reputation of the investigating agencies will be at stake.

If the investigations prove that PFI is guilty of the charges made against them, the organization is doing a terrible disservice to the Muslim community at large. Thanks to Muslim League, the Muslims of India were divided, weakened, left behind in 1947. If you are really interested in the welfare of the Muslims, make them true Indians and desist from injecting communal venom in them.

*Dr. Vaidik is a widely travelled scholar-journalist. He has visited more than 80 countries on diplomatic and educational missions. Dr. Vaidik has won more than a dozen National and International awards for academic and journalistic excellence. He has been a member of several Advisory Committees of Government of India.