The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has warned that extreme religious zeal fanned by a fringe set of hardliners threatened to permeate minority community politics in Kerala.
In an internal communication to members, the CPI(M) has reportedly noted with concern that Kerala's largely forward-looking Christian and Muslim communities were not impervious to the social peril.
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CPI(M) acting State secretariat A. Vijayaraghavan appeared to confirm such a line of thought.
After Thursday's State secretariat meeting, Mr. Vijayaraghavan told reporters that minority and majority communalism threatened Kerala's secular fabric. Both were mutually symbiotic, and one catalysed the other. Illustratively, Jamaat-e-Islami's brazenly Islamist political creed drove the Hindutva agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said.
A party insider claimed that the confidential communique also flagged the possibility of radical elements recruiting professional college students for extremist purposes. The circular purportedly said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) had attempted to advance its Hindu majoritarian agenda by using front organisations such as the Seva Bharathi.
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It had drawn women into the Hindutva fold by harping about protecting the faith. Hindutva forces also tried to tap into the growing Islamophobia, especially in the wake of the Taliban's recent conquest of Afghanistan, to create communal mistrust in Kerala.
Mr. Vijayaraghavan said the Congress had no qualms about allying with the Welfare Party of India (WPI), the political arm of Jamaat-e-Islami, in the 2021 Assembly elections. The government had defeated a desperate attempt by the BJP to fish in troubled waters by seizing on the ‘narcotic jihad’ controversy.
The BJP had intervened in the matter to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims. Pala Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt had no ill intention when he broached the subject during a sermon.
Mr. Vijayaraghavan said the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leadership was drifting towards medievalism. It had disowned Harita women activists who rebelled against the misogynistic leadership of the Muslim Student Federation.
More leaders would quit the Congress to embrace the CPI(M). The "spat" within the LDF between the KC(M) and the CPI was mere media speculation. The CPI had not damned any alliance partner in its election review report.