Author: VR Jayaraj
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 22, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/164269/Madani-turns-Left-meet-into-PDP-event.html
Kerala CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan on
Saturday completed the baptism of Islamist Abdul Nasser Madani and his PDP
into the Left by sharing the dais of an LDF election convention in the Muslim-majority
Ponnani Lok Sabha constituency in Malappuram district.
Pinarayi threw all objections from the party,
Left front constituents and the general public to the formalisation of an
open CPI(M) alliance with PDP to the winds by declaring at Ponnani that Madani
was an anti-terror crusader. "He has traveled all over Kerala spreading
the message against religious terrorism," Pinarayi said.
The CPI(M)'s act of hosting a programme which,
in effect, was designed to formally sanctify the Marxist-Madani political
alliance, came within hours of CPI country chief AB Bardhan's statement in
Delhi that the PDP was indeed a communal outfit. "Don't scare us with
statements like 'here comes the communalist, here comes the terrorist.' Madani
is no terrorist. We do not need anybody's certificate for that," Pinarayi
said in a direct reply to the CPI.
The CPI(M) State secretary had on Friday kickstarted
the exercise of baptizing Madani and his outfit by allowing PDP working chairman
Poonthura Siraj to abuse RSP national general secretary TJ Chandrachoodan
for terming PDP as a communal organization at a convention in Attingal, Thiruvananthapuram.
At that convention, leaders of LDF partner RSP were pushed to the back row
while Siraj sat in the front row with Pinarayti, hogging the limelight.
However, several older Marxist leaders admitted
that the Ponnani convention with Madani sitting next to Pinarayi was a big
tragedy for the party. Pinarayi inaugurated the convention with a more than
60-minute speech, but when Madani spoke afterwards, the LDF convention virtually
turned into a PDP conference.
"I could not stand the sight. I think
what has happened is the reverse of what Pinarayi was intending to gain with
this alliance. What I felt was that the CPI(M) had fallen into levels so low
that the PDP was controlling it," said an senior CPI(M) leader, who was
a former State committee member.
Going back once again to his technique of
using a carefully modulated voice and calculated tone designed to take the
Muslim crowds into his hands, Madani spoke of the dangers of imperialism,
his pains in the prison in Coimbatore, the efforts of the UDF leaders including
Muslim League functionaries to get his support in the 2001 election.
However, he started his speech by showering
praises on Pinarayi, obviously for his boldness to accept the PDP as a great
friend rejecting the front constituents' protests. He promised not to let
Pinarayi down by pledging to end his public life if any authorities ever succeeded
in proving that he had terror connections.
Madani ridiculed the Congress and its ally
Muslim League for calling him a terror man now. "When I was in the prison,
UDF leaders from Kerala had made long marches to Coimbatore to seek my support
in election. They had waited for hours on end to meet me in the prison. I
will provide evidence to prove that they had approached me with request for
support even in this election," he said.
Reminding the speeches during his formative
days in the ISS and in the PDP after that, Madani addressed the entire crowd
of LDF supporters and those on the dais including several CPI(M) heavyweights
as "my children."
The convention was organized in Ponnani constituency
to launch the electioneering for LDF Independent candidate Hussein Randathani,
whose candidature was reportedly proposed by Madani and readily endorsed by
the Marxist party. This had led to several days of standoff between the CPI(M)
and the CPI, to which the LDF had allocated the Ponnani seat.
