“We are with Saddam Hussein. Who are you with?” EMS Namboodiripad, then general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), had said in January 1991 - the peak of the Gulf War - throwing down the gauntlet at the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) on the eve of the district council election. The Marxist party-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) went on to sweep that election in 12 of Kerala's 14 districts.
As Kerala voted for the Nilambur by-election this week, communalism and dog-whistles came to dominate the political discourse of all political parties. The by-poll is very important to all stakeholders, coming as it is just months ahead of the assembly election next year. Beyond their traditional vote bases, each front has gone after typical fringe elements to ensure their win. This is happening in a state where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a minor player even today.
Marxists And Madani
Any visitor to the constituency will not miss a strategically-placed giant hoarding of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Nasar Madani, where he is symbolically blessing M Swaraj, the CPI-M candidate in Nilambur. Not only did the Left accept the support extended by the radical preacher, but the Marxist party - represented by state secretary MV Govindan - also extended a ‘secular certificate' to the PDP, for having ostensibly toned down its extremist ways. It is another matter that social media posts of Marxists, including AA Rahim, accusing the PDP of political murders of its cadres are still visible on their profiles.
No sooner had the poll bugle been sounded, videos of CPI-M Malappuram District Secretariat member, TM Siddique, appealing to all and sundry to cast their votes in favour of the Left - taking names of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Jamaat-e-Islami - started making the rounds on social media. When controversy arose, candidate M. Swaraj tried to water it down to say that he covets only the votes of human beings, and that “communalists cannot be human”. Word play aside, it was clear that regardless of all the lofty talk on secularism, there was overt and covert pandering to communal elements.
Congress And The Jamaat-e-Islami
The UDF wasn't far behind. Congress had no qualms welcoming the support extended by the Welfare Party of India, the political wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, in Nilambur. The Left, too, was quick to pounce on it to parry the question of PDP. Kerala Muslims - mostly Sunnis - have misgivings about the Jamaat-e-Islami's concept of political Islam and theocratic state conceived by its founder Syed Abul A'la Maududi. VD Satheesan, Kerala's Leader of Opposition, who fashions himself as a ‘Nehruvian', was quick to come to the defence of the Jamaat, issuing his own ‘secular certificate' to the organisation, which, to note, was banned twice by the Congress in 1975 and 1992.
Satheesan says that the Jamaat has put its concept of ‘Hukumat-e-Ilahi' (Divine rule) on the backburner and has fully embraced Indian democracy. But what makes Satheesan's contentions ironic is the fact that Nilambur is synonymous with Aryadan Muhammed, renowned for his secular credentials. In fact, Aryadan had made it his mission to tackle the fundamentalist elements within the Muslim fold throughout his political career, winning eight times from the constituency (1965-2016). While Aryadan was consistently sharp in his criticism of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Popular Front of India and Madani, he did not think twice even while taking on the Indian Union Muslim League - an ally - whenever the latter went too far with its brand of identity politics.
Aryadan's son, Shoukath, who is contesting the by-election on a Congress ticket, has also taken after his father, though he has no choice but to bear with this appeasement strategy of Congress. Shoukath had used the medium of films to put forth his secular ideology in the past, where he cast the Jamaat-e-Islami and Muslim orthodoxy in poor light.
Meanwhile, a 2010 speech of TK Abdullah - twice the Amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Kerala -has been circulating on social media, in which he declares how the Jamaat has held on to its ideology steadfastly. He states that terms like “democracy” and “secularism” used by the organisation are mere wordplay, a “survival tactic”.
Jamaat-e-Islami's True Colours
The Solidarity Youth Movement and Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) - feeder organisations working directly under the Jamaat-e-Islami - recently used posters of slain Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh as well as Muslim Brotherhood's Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna while taking out a protest against the Waqf Amendment Act in Calicut. The Jamaat-e-Islami's host of crimes against humanity in Bangladesh, where it was banned under the previous regime of Sheikh Hasina, are well-documented.
However, the outfit's Kerala unit would argue that it has nothing to do with the organisation in Bangladesh or Pakistan. According to Congress leader KP Noushad Ali, the Congress is courting the Jamaat-e-Islami for its ability to set narratives through media ventures, such as the MediaOne news channel and Madhyamam. However, to many it would seem that the Jamaat is two-timing the Congress, or at least working at cross purposes. A close analysis of ‘Out of Focus', MediaOne's editorial show with a phenomenal reach, shows how it has consistently adopted a position against the Congress on the Nilambur by-poll.
PV Anvar's Shenanigans
In fact, MediaOne Managing Editor (and Jamaat-e-Islami Shura member) C Dawood was seen repeatedly hitting out at Aryadan Shoukath for “spreading Islamophobia” through acclaimed films such as Paadam Onnu Oru Vilapam (2003) and Daivanamathil (2005). Instead, the Jamaat was clearly plumping for PV Anvar, who also targeted Shoukath's films for “going against the interests of the Muslim community”. In fact, it was the moneybag politician's resignation as the Left-backed independent MLA that had triggered the Nilambur by-election in the first place, when he pledged his support for the Congress.
PV Anvar later fell out with the Congress after failing to gain entry in the UDF, and got back in the poll fray in Nilambur as an independent. Anvar is not only seen endorsing the Jamaat-e-Islami's talking points, but he also seems to have entered into a Faustian deal with the SDPI, the political wing of the proscribed PFI, to have their votes transferred in his favour. The SDPI had already named Sadik Naduthodi as its candidate before Anvar re-entered the fray, who has since chosen to contest as an independent. Whereas, Anvar has been allotted the ‘scissor' symbol, previously assigned to the SDPI in Nilambur.
BJP And Hindu Mahasabha
One may still ignore the desperation of PV Anvar to register a decent vote share and use it as a bargaining chip going ahead, but it is difficult to fathom why Kerala's established political parties have been chasing after these fringe elements. Unlike the past, when the BJP itself was a fringe player in Kerala, the saffron party has raised its vote share to 20% in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Also, there is always the prospect of a counter-polarisation. Perhaps the fact that the Nilambur by-election is being held in the Muslim-majority Malappuram gives confidence to the Congress and the CPI-M to pander to these communal elements. But in the long term, it only raises questions about their commitment to secularism.
The BJP had initially mulled sitting out the contest, but later fielded a defector, Mohan George, from the Kerala Congress (Joseph). The idea is to cater to the Congress vote base in Nilambur as part of its larger Christian outreach in Kerala. However, that move came with its own risk, as the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha extended its support to M Swaraj - on account of his Nair credentials - to protest the BJP's fielding of an ‘outsider'. The Marxist party denied having held any discussion with the Hindu Mahasabha, but pictures of their representatives parleying with CPI-M Politburo member A Vijayaraghavan were viral on social media.
Middle-East Reverberations In Nilambur
Meanwhile, Israel's attack on Iran was also woven into the campaign narrative by the Left in Nilambur. Pinarayi Vijayan called Israel a ‘rogue state' and invoked the conflict in the Middle East repeatedly in the last lap of the campaign. This was straight out of the playbook of EMS Namoothiripad in 1991 - which it also used to good effect in another by-election in Thiruvambady in 2006. Back then, the CPI-M Kerala mouthpiece, People TV, had run a ‘Save Saddam campaign' on the eve of the election, only to win it by a wafer-thin margin.
Swaraj's own strategy of donning a green shirt on the campaign trail and using the colour for publicity material did not go unnoticed. The CPI-M has traditionally resorted to tricks like using green graffiti to appeal to the voters in Malappuram.
In this political circus, bread-and-butter issues, including the man-animal conflict in Kerala's Teak County of Nilambur, have failed to get due prominence. The deployment of communal politics in God's Own Country is the height of absurdity, and presages a bleak future for the state's secular underpinning.
(Anand Kochukudy is a senior journalist and columnist)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
