Who are the PFI and Why are their Premises Being Searched by the NIA?
As many as 100 people linked to the Popular Front of India have been arrested following searches by the National Investigation Agency in connection with anti-terror activities
The National Investigation Agency on Thursday morning launched a massive nationwide search operation in connection with anti-terror activities. The operation was described as the “largest ever.” It involved searches across 10 states and has so far led to the arrest of over 100 people who were linked to the Popular Front of India (PFI).
The searches, according to news agency PTI, are part of a crackdown against those allegedly involved in terror funding, organising training camps and radicalising people to join proscribed organisations.
The premises being searched by the NIA include at least 10 places across Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, including the residence of PFI state president Nazeer Pasha.
In response to the operation, the PFI in a statement said: “We strongly protest the fascist regime’s moves to use agencies to silence dissenting voices.” The PFI statement confirmed that “raids are taking place at the homes of its national, state and local leaders. The state committee office is also being raided.”
What is the Popular Front of India?
The PFI was created in 2007 through the merger of three Muslim organisations in southern India, the National Democratic Front in Kerala, the Karnataka Forum for Dignity, and the Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu.
A decision to bring the three outfits together was taken in November 2006 at a meeting in Kozhikode in Kerala. The formation of the PFI was formally announced at a rally in Bengaluru during what was called the “Empower India Conference” on February 16, 2007.
The PFI, which emerged in the aftermath of the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), has projected itself as an organisation that fights for the rights of minorities, Dalits, and marginalised communities. It has frequently targeted the alleged anti-people policies of the Congress, the BJP, and the JD-S in Karnataka, even as these mainstream parties have accused one another of being in cahoots with the PFI to gather the support of Muslims at the time of elections.
The PFI has itself never contested elections. It has been involved in carrying out social and Islamic religious work among Muslims on the lines of the work done by right-wing groups such as the RSS, VHP, and Hindu Jagaran Vedike among the Hindu community. The PFI does not maintain records of its members, and it has been difficult for law enforcement agencies to pin crimes on the organisation after making arrests.
In 2009, a political outfit named Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) evolved out of the PFI, with the aim of taking up the political issues of Muslims, Dalits, and other marginalised communities.
The SDPI’s stated goal is “advancement and uniform development of all the citizenry including Muslims, Dalits, Backward Classes and Adivasis”, and to “share power fairly among all the citizens”. The PFI is a key provider of ground workers for the SDPI’s political activities.
What is PFI’s Footprint in Kerala?
The PFI has had the most visible presence in Kerala, where it has been repeatedly accused of murder, rioting, intimidation and having links with terrorist organisations.
Back in 2012, the Kerala government headed by Oommen Chandy of the Congress, had informed the High Court that PFI was “nothing but a resurrection of the banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in another form”. The government affidavit said PFI activists were involved in 27 cases of murder, mostly of CPM and RSS cadres, and that the motives were communal.
Two years later, the Kerala government told the High Court in another affidavit that the PFI had a clandestine agenda of “Islamisation of society by promoting conversion, communalisation of issues with a view to the benefit of Islam, recruitment, and maintenance of a branded committed indoctrinated Muslim youth for undertaking actions including selective elimination of persons, who in their perception are enemies of Islam”.
The 2014 affidavit was in response to a petition filed by Thejas, the PFI’s mouthpiece in Kerala, which had challenged the denial of government advertisements since March 2013. The affidavit reiterated that workers of the PFI and its predecessor National Development Front (NDF) were involved in 27 cases of communally motivated murders, 86 cases of attempt to murder, and 106 cases of a communal nature in the state.
In April this year, the Kerala BJP announced the launch of a campaign against “growing instances” of “religious terrorism” in the state, with the PFI’s alleged involvement. “In the last six years, 24 BJP-RSS workers have been killed in Kerala, seven of them by the Popular Front of India,” BJP state president K Surendran said on April 18.
The day after Subair’s murder, an RSS worker named S K Sreenivasan (45) was hacked to death by five men who stormed into his two-wheeler shop in the BJP stronghold of Melamuri in Palakkad
How Successful Have the PFI/ SDPI been in Karnataka Politically?
The PFI/SDPI has influence mainly in regions with large Muslim populations. The SDPI has built a presence in coastal Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, where it has managed to win local polls for village, town, and city councils.
From 2013 onward, the SDPI has fielded candidates in elections to the Karnataka Assembly and Parliament. Its most creditable performance came in the 2013 state elections, when it finished second at the Narasimharaja seat, which is part of the Mysore Lok Sabha constituency. In 2018, the SDPI came third in Narasimharaja behind the Congress and BJP, winning over 20 per cent of votes.
The SDPI also contested the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections for the Dakshina Kannada seat but could win only 1 per cent and 3 per cent votes respectively.
Politically, where is the SDPI placed in relation to the Congress and the BJP?
Although the PFI has not been proscribed by the Government of India, the BJP has often tried to paint the group as being extremist on account of its pro-Muslim stance.
In Karnataka, the BJP has often cited murders of workers of right-wing groups affiliated to the BJP by alleged PFI cadre to seek a ban on the PFI.
However, in more than 310 cases registered against the PFI in Karnataka since 2007, there have been convictions in only five.
As far as Congress is concerned, since the SDPI aims for the same pool of votes as the Congress, it is seen as helping the BJP in communally polarised constituencies and in regions where Muslim votes can tilt election results, such as Dakshina Kannada. Ahead of the 2018 elections, the Congress is believed to have struck a deal with the SDPI to withdraw candidates from constituencies like Bantwal and Mangalore City North in Dakshina Kannada and Sarvagna Nagar and Hebbal in Bengaluru.
Former Congress leader Roshan Baig, who has shifted allegiance to the BJP, has in the past accused the Congress of having ties with the SDPI and PFI. However, when Baig was in the Congress, he was accused of being involved with the SDPI by BJP leaders like Shobha Karandlaje.
After coming to power in Karnataka in 2013, the Congress government dropped cases against SDPI and PFI members who were accused of involvement in communal disturbances during the previous BJP government’s tenure. Siddaramaiah’s then government approved the dropping of a total 176 cases filed against 1,600 PFI activists during 2008-13 by the BJP government. These cases were related to protests and communal flare-ups in Shivamogga (114 cases from 2015), Mysuru (40 cases from 2009), Hassan (21 cases from 2010), and Karwar (1 case in 2017).
