The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretariat on Friday said that a “weakened” Opposition, the United Democratic Front (UDF), was scrambling to court Muslim fundamentalist forces, chiefly the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, as a political crutch to prop up its “flagging electoral fortunes” in the run-up to the local body polls later this year and the Assembly elections in 2026.

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan told a press conference that the Jamaat-e-Islami-aligned Solidarity Youth Movement (SYM)‘s employment of “extreme Islamist iconography” in its recent campaign posters belied Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan’s claim that the “fundamentalist and regressive” organisation had dropped its advocacy for the establishment of a Muslim theocratic State in India. 

‘Latest poster boys’

Islamist ideologue Syed Abdul Ala Maududi and Muslim Brotherhood leader Yusul-al-Qardavi, the SYM’s latest poster boys, advocated pan-Islamism, broadcast a narrow and profoundly conservative interpretation of Islamic law and values, he said. Both leaders were antithetical to the core principles of secularism, democracy, pluralism and religious tolerance. The SYM had re-launched its agenda of revanchist Islamic revivalism in Kerala, possibly to garner Muslim votes, especially among the younger demographic, in favour of the UDF.

He stated that the SYF appeared to have the blessings of the Indian Union Muslim League’s (IUML) current leadership, which had repeatedly signalled a shift from progressive and reformist politics to deep-rooted and revanchist conservatism. 

Mr. Govindan said the SYM’s bid to push Jamaat-e-Islami’s agenda for the establishment of an Islamic nation in India to the front burner would only supercharge the Sangh Parivar’s agenda to forge an oppressive Hindu casteist theocracy in the crucible of secular and pluralistic Indian politics.  

Symbiotic relationship

“The Jamaat-e-Islami and the Sangh Parivar share a symbiotic relationship. Both seek to divide society into mutually distrustful religious lines for political dividends. The perilous politics of ghettoing people on communal lines bodes ill for Kerala. The CPI(M) will muster public opinion to counter the move to sow communal division in the State,” he added. 

Mr. Govindan condemned the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s “bid to usurp” Mahatma Gandhi’s political legacy by seeking to lionise the founding father to obfuscate the truth that he was the victim of a Hindu majoritarian murder conspiracy.