Dr Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao
The recent blast at a prayer meeting of a controversial Christian group called Jehovah’s Witnesses at Kalamassery in Kochi killing at least three and injuring many has started a political slugfest among parties. Despite a past member of that controversial group, Dominic Martin, confessing to the crime of causing the blasts using the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and ruling Left Front relying on that to rule out role of Islamic radical groups, many questions remained unanswered.
Kerala is witnessing the fast radicalization of Muslim community and many outfits in different names are operating in that state and also extending their operations in to the neighbouring state of Karnataka. Can a terrorist leader residing abroad make a virtual address without ground support in Kerala? Who contacted Hamas member Mashal to address Kerala Muslim youth, who has no connection with Palestine, barring religion. No group in India took a stand on the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war and then why Muslims take Palestine-Israel as personal, without leaving the issue to the government of India. Whether it is a intelligence failure on the part of Kerala police or a deliberately allowed virtual meet under the appease Muslims policy practiced by CPM.
Whatever may be the reason, the fact is that a foreign terrorist got access to a particular volatile community in India and incite the youth from that religion. The videos available shows the frenzy Muslim youth belonging to the Solidarity Youth Movement (SYM) one of the many radicalized outfits in operating in South India responding to the anti-Semitic speech of a terrorist with chants of “up root bulldozer Hindutva & apartheid Zionism”. This Muslim youth wing is associated with Jamaat-e-Islami and the terrorist who addressed the youth is Mashal, a Qatar based international Hamas terrorist.
What surprises is, despite that open defiance and sloganeering mania the Muslim organization, CM of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan is not taking that incident seriously. The CPM leader are not ready to concede that virtual address by a designated terrorist to an Indian gathering as a condemnable incidence. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and former Kerala minister and present politburo member M.A. Baby almost condoned the address of terrorist group Hamas member by saying that “Hamas is not a banned organization”. One wonders what sort of message the CPM members of Kerala are trying to convey. The Congress spokesperson appearing on India Today TV debate was not ready to condemn the Hamas leader address out rightly. Even after all the initial commotion of linking the Kochi blasts to the Hamas gang terrorist address to the Muslim youth the Kerala police are yet to register a case against the organizers of that provocative meet.
The ‘secular parties’ inability to condemn the violence of the minorities coupled with the numerical strength of minorities in Kerala and their collective bargaining capacity is giving a free hand for the radical elements in the minority religions to spread their anti-national activities and further spread the radicalism in Kerala. The current bomb blasts and the situation arising out of the incidence is a proof for the pampering of the minority community. The state government headed by CPM’s reaction to the Mamallapuram Muslim gathering and their anti-Hindu slogans and the address of terror outfit Hamas leader is taken very lightly and is said “needs to be investigated” by the CM of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan, while the police booked the union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar under various sections for the “remarks” and “tweets” blaming a particular community for the blasts. Unfortunately such an alacrity is lacking from the Left lead administration when offensive comments came from Muslim leaders.
The government of Pinarayi’s prompt action against the Hindu groups is acting as a deterrent to retaliate by the Hindu groups, the absence application of laws equally is helping the Muslim and Christian radical groups to go scot free. Even the media is ignoring the acts of minority radical groups as the media houses are controlled by Left liberals. Kerala’s religious composition is unique among the Indian states. Officially recorded population of Kerala is 57%, followed by 23% Muslim and 19% Christian. As elsewhere in India, in Kerala too all those present minority communities are originally from the Hindu stock but got converted for some reasons including pecuniary reasons. The caste hierarchy of Hindu religion is stated as the major reason for easy conversion by the Christian missionaries. While there were massive reform movements in Hindu society of Kerala lead by Ayyakali, Narayana Guru and some sort of homogeneity was achieved over the period with conservative Hindu elements conceding the need for social change. Surprisingly the Christian and Muslim population developed a sort of caste hierarchy structure within the Church and Mosques. No reform movements are allowed in those religious groups leading to the fast spread of radical elements funded by the Gulf money as well as donations from Rome and other European Christian nations. These religious groups are more and more controlled from outside India, thus challenging the very concept of India as a nation and responsibility of people to the country.
The Communists which have early influence in the state of Kerala has led many agitations for egalitarian society but their questioning the belief systems stopped with Hindu religion and its leaders never dared to question the irrationality of Muslims or Christians. On the other hand the Communist government, the first democratically elected one the world, headed by EMS Namboodripad had no qualms in creating a Muslim dominant district of Mamallapuram under the appease Muslim policy. Since the Left had given many concessions for the Muslim clergy only to please the Gulf countries where the Malayalam diaspora works and support the “money order economy” of Kerala. The policy of Congress lead UDF is no different in the appeasement policy as it has Muslim League as its coalition partner. Surprisingly for both Left and Congress the Muslim League is a secular party and that much for the secular outlook of Congress, CPM and CPI.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses emerged as a powerful religious group with the political patronize and they openly defy the national symbols. They refuse to recognize India as a state, they refuse to sing the National anthem and also refuse to join the Indian army. In the name of liberal democracy and Indian philosophy of tolerance the one Supreme Court judge gave a strange judgment allowing the Jehovah’s Witnesses to stand while other or singing the Indian National Anthem. It is this unnecessary pampering which is making some of the Christian groups take anti-India stand on some of the issues. The confessor to the crime of latest Kerala blasts Martin, himself a member of the cult group for over 16 years, spoke about his disillusionment with the “anti-National messaging” since 2017. Martin further claimed that “anti-National indoctrination” is going in the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses and surprisingly Kerala police has no clue on anti-National activity of religious groups both Christian and Muslims.
The support of the CPM to the terrorism of Muslims is evident when its leaders pounced on one of its lady MLA and former Health Minister Sailaja for tweeting Hamas as the terrorist group. Tremendous pressure was exerted on her to withdraw the terror tag to Hamas in her tweet and she obliged. When the whole world condemned the Hamas, a confirmed terror group, on its brutal attack on Israel and killing kids and raping women the Indian Communists and Congress are the only people who refuse to condemn the Hamas and its terrorist acts. One can infer to whom these ‘secular hearts’ beats.
By encouraging the terror groups for the sake of power and sheltering those with terrorist mindset both Congress and Left are making the state of Kerala as the center for radicalization of youth and allowing the radicalized men and women to join ISIS and also blasts the bombs inside our territory. It is high time that the investigation into all these anti-National activities including the Kochi blasts is taken up by NIA to expose the tinder box situation prevailing in that tiny southern state, Kerala.
(Author is retired professor. The views expressed are personal opinion of the author. He can be reached at [email protected])