JEDDAH, 20 January 2007 — America has been carrying out aggression against Muslim countries under the pretext of “the war on terror” in order to garner popular support for its imperial designs, a human rights campaigner from Kerala said.
Speaking at a seminar entitled “Empower India” here recently, O.P.A. Salam, the general secretary of the recently-formed Popular Front of India, said it was regrettable however that international platforms have increasingly been used to talk about global terrorism justifying the imperial agenda of the United States. The seminar was organized by Muslim Ekata Samiti, a cultural organization of Keralites.
Salam, who was in the Kingdom to perform Haj, said it was possible to draw a parallel between the arrival of the British colonizers in India and the current occupation by the US forces of one Muslim country after another. He said that in the name of globalization Washington has been trying to win over Third World nations and influence their domestic policies to the detriment of the downtrodden.
Salam said the Popular Front, a federation of neo-social movements in the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, would hold its own “Empower India Conference” in Bangalore next month. The aim of the conference, according to him, is to prepare the ground for equally empowering all Indians, including Muslims and other marginalized people of the country such as the Dalits and backward communities.
He said the conference, scheduled for Feb. 15 and 16, would motivate the underprivileged sections of society to work for social justice and human rights. A large number of rights activists, social workers and representatives of NGOs are expected to attend the conference.
Salam said the Front was launched to strengthen developmental activities at grass-root level with the aim of empowering the nation at large by uplifting the socially and politically deprived sections of society. At present, the components of the Front include the National Development Front (NDF) in Kerala, Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD).
Ikramul Haque, a supreme council member of the NDF, said he hoped that the Bangalore conference would be a milestone in the history of the marginalized masses of southern India, especially the Muslims. NDF Vice Chairman Abdul Rahman Baqavi as well as Ekata Samiti leaders also spoke at the event which was attended by a large number of Keralite expatriates in Jeddah.
