The purported attempts to invoke religious sentiments amid mounting protests demanding the resignation of Higher Education Minister K.T. Jaleel may not have so far cut much ice with the mainstream Muslim opinion in the State.
But indications are that there will be accelerated efforts to appeal to communal sensibilities as both the ruling front and the Opposition parties are digging in their heels on their respective positions on the ongoing protests.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has made it abundantly clear that the party seeks to portray the protests by the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as ‘anti-Quran,’ thereby endorsing the beleaguered Minister's stand that he is being targeted for accepting imported Quran copies from the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram for distribution, an act that the latter views as a religious and cultural transaction.
Mr. Balakrishnan's article titled 'Affront to Quran?' in the CPI(M) mouthpiece Deshabhimani on Friday is seen as an attempt to elicit responses that are hoped to resonate with religious sentiments of the Muslim community on Quran.
Mr. Balakrishnan's bid to give religious shade to the controversy over the ongoing investigation by the Central agencies into the diplomatic baggage gold smuggling case has come in the wake of a recent article published in Siraj daily, the mouthpiece of the Sunni faction led by by Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musaliar, which has cozy relationship with the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).
The article published on September 15 is viewed as an indicator of the stand of the Sunni faction on the protests against Mr. Jaleel. The article's conclusion is that the UDF's demand for probe into Mr. Jaleel's alleged violation of provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 amounts to lending a helping hand to the implementation of the 'anti-Muslim agenda' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Central government.
The mainstream Muslim groups, including the Kanthapuram faction and its rival E.K. faction, known to be close to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) have generally distanced from the bid to drag religion into the controversy.
IUML leader P.K. Kunhalikutty's statement on Friday that the move to drag religion was to divert the discussion on the corruption charges linked with the gold smuggling case is an indication that the IUML leadership's prompt response to the efforts to appeal to religious sentiments is wary of the possibility of the protests against Mr. Jaleel being used for communal polarisation.
