New Face of Terrorism in Bharat: The (Un)Popular Front of India | VIEWS

There has been a raging debate about the future of religious extremism and intolerance in Bharat for some time now. The debate has taken many forms and shapes, but there has been a consensus among sane minds that there is no room for religious perversions in a democratic society like ours.

The barbarity of the medieval ages cannot be propagated or allowed to thrive in the modern independent Bharat. The country is on a growth trajectory with many salient points headlining the global news in the past decade. However, there are some fronts and civil society organizations in Bharat which are constantly working on their agenda of religious domination, community divide, sectarian violence and breaking Bharat along its fault lines. Such institutions are a bane of Bharatiya society and need to be completely shut down for the healthy functioning of society.

Read: NIA gets custody of 11 PFI activists till Sept 30 after massive crackdown against radical outfit

One such organization is the Popular Front of India (PFI). The outfit has been propagating radicalism in Bharat since its inception. The voices for banning the organisation have been becoming shriller with each passing day as multiple state governments across the nation question the intention of the outfit as well as the work undertaken by it. After much planning and patience, the Government of India finally decided to put a leash on the Popular Front of India.

On Thursday 22nd September, NIA raided and arrested 106 members of the PFI from 11 states. Following the raids of NIA, ATS Mumbai raided 12 PFI premises in Maharashtra and arrested 20 members the very same day. The charges against PFI operatives are very grave and need to be clearly highlighted for better public awareness of the organisation. But before we move on to the charges, let's understand the gloomy character and history of PFI.

To understand more about PFI, let's go back to the information submitted by the Oommen Chandy-led Congress government of Kerala to the Kerala High Court in 2012 in which it categorically mentioned that PFI was nothing but a resurrected form of the banned outfit SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India). This is a correct description of PFI. PFI was formed after the banning of SIMI by the merger of three Islamic organisations namely the National Democratic Front in Kerala, the Karnataka Forum for Dignity, and the Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu and was announced in the "Empower India Conference'' in 2007.

Though the PFI never contested elections, it floated a political outfit in 2009 by the name of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). The stated goals of SDPI and PFI are mostly on the same line and talk about the development of the marginalised sections including Dalits, Muslims and Vanvasis. Quite contrary to the stated objectives, the PFI has been accused on multiple occasions of causing communal unrest.

In 2014, the Kerala Government told the High Court about PFI and highlighted their agenda as "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". In the same affidavit, the government highlighted that PFI and its predecessor NDF, were involved in 27 cases of communally motivated murders, 86 cases of attempts to murder, and 106 cases of a communal nature in the state. This is just the tip of the iceberg. In recent years, PFI increased its multifold activities and has been on the radar of multiple state governments. In February 2022, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to the Centre to ban PFI for 'subversive activities and radicalisation'.

Read: Documents, hand-written notes, booklets seized from PFI's Kolkata office by NIA

There is a lot to worry about if we closely analyse the activities of PFI in the recent past. The organisation is involved in almost all the nefarious activities taking place in any part of the country. Let's understand this in more detail.

PFI had direct involvement in the Hijab row which led to communal violence in different parts of Karnataka in February. The Father of Muskan Zainab, who rose to the status of a 'shero' for shouting "Allahu Akbar", is a PFI member. Not only this, the PFI has in the past openly supported terrorists and even some of its members have joined ISIS. Even PFI members have been accused of organising terror camps themselves. Not only this, PFI members have been accused and arrested for causing multiple riots.

The organisation's members were arrested in anti-CAA riots in UP, Bengaluru riots at KG Halli Police Station in 2020 and for causing caste-based unrest in UP during the Hathras case. These are all very recent incidents. The organisation has also been found to be involved in conversion activities like 'Love Jihad' and also of attacking and murdering members of RSS and activists. The organisation is even accused of giving death threats to judges and chopping off the hands of a professor accusing him of blasphemy.

The organisation's activity landed it in a soup with multiple state governments and the state governments of Jharkhand, Assam and Kerala have either banned the outfit or have pressed for a ban on it from the central government. Even the NIA sought a ban on the outfit. The egregious intentions of the PFI are well known and the organization has been promoting all illicit activities under the garb of working for the marginalised sections of society.

The organisation's real aim is to establish Islamic rule in Bharat. The clamouring down of PFI is just one step. The deep-rooted menace that the organisation has spread needs to be totally highlighted to the public and the different centres of the outfit need to be completely weeded out. The organisation has blood on its hands. The charges against the organisation are grave. The NIA has mentioned that PFI promoted its members to join LeT and ISIS. The organisation is radical in its outlook and its activities require a serious clamp down.

Even after the raid, the activities of PFI didn't change. In the 'hartal' which was organised in the aftermath of the raids in Kerala, there were multiple violent incidents. The Kerala CM stated that the violence was premeditated. After the violence, 1,013 persons were arrested and 281 cases were registered by the police in the state. The organization aims to bring the barbarity of the medieval ages back to Bharat. It wants to communalize and divide society. It aims to promote nothing but radicalisation and sectarian violence.

Read: PFI violence in Kerala pre-meditated, culprits will not be spared: CM Pinarayi Vijayan

The organisation should be named the 'Radical Front of India' instead of the 'Popular Front of India' as everything about the organisation is aimed at promoting radicalisation. It's the new face to promote and sponsor terrorism in Bharat. PFI is unhealthy for society at large and all the branches and offshoots of the organisation need to be totally clamped down by all quarters.

(Sandeep Krishnarao Patil is an Advisor to VESIM Literati Festival, Mumbai, Khajuraho Literature Festival, Prabuddha Bharat, Belagavi.)