UDF divided over date of its liaison committee meet

A decision on convening the long overdue United Democratic Front (UDF) liaison committee meeting appears to be elusive due to the reluctance of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leaders to agree to a date until some of the issues they have raised are resolved.

The last time the UDF liaison committee met was on November 1 under peculiar circumstances to protest against the Kannur stone-throwing incident in which Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was injured. No further political dialogues have taken place since then.

The IUML leaders have been not been exactly happy at the manner in which the Congress leadership has reacted to its demands to resolve the issues they had raised before Congress president Sonia Gandhi during her visit here. The IUML had raised three main issues that were, according to the party leaders, causing concern.

They had expressed concern over the attempts of some of the Congress leaders to brand their party as communal, without actually giving due credit to their efforts to bring fringe Muslim orthodox and fundamentalist groups into the political mainstream.

Congress feud Another issue related to the ongoing factional feuds in the Congress, which, according to the IUML leaders, cast a shadow on the UDF as a well-knit unit. The third issue was certain assurances from the Congress high command, presumably on their status in the post-election period. The IUML leadership has also dropped sufficient hints that it was not driven by any ambition for additional seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The IUML leaders are not happy at the Congress high command’s approach to Kerala issues as it has not taken the initiative to invite the IUML leadership for talks. The turf war between some of the Congress and IUML leaders has been continuing despite the blanket ban imposed by the leaderships of the respective parties. Moreover, no major steps have been taken by the Congress high command to sort out the factional rift in the party.

Congress leaders have pointed out that the IUML had no locus standi to talk about unity, since the belligerent positions taken by some of its leaders have only served to vitiate ties with the Congress. The senior leaders of the two parties have been cautious in their utterances in order to prevent a total break down.