KOZHIKODE: Popular Front of India (PFI), the new political outfit floated by three south Indian Muslim bodies, has vowed to ensure that the minority community gets proportional representation in the Indian Parliament and regional assemblies.
“Political advancement is indispensable for Muslim empowerment in the present context when even the constitutional rights are denied to them,” said a resolution adopted by its first national political conference held here last week. “When a few other backward classes increased their representation, the Muslim share remained a mere 6.5 percent.”
The PFI believes that the Muslims supporting the secular parties to keep the predominantly Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power did not do any good for the community and they had in fact deprived them of legislative power.
“We are guiding Indian Muslims and other backward communities toward a new political thinking to ensure adequate representation,” the PFI Chairman E.M. Abdurrahman said. “This positive politics has to replace the conventional negative politics practiced by Muslims by voting with the sole aim of defeating the immediate foe.”
According to him, the Muslims got more marginalized than any other community in the country as evidenced by the Sachar Commission report. Instead of exercising their voting power to make others win elections, the PFI feels, Muslims should strive for due representation and due share of development.
The PFI is a common platform of Kerala’s National Development Front (NDF), Manitha Neethi Pasarai (MNP) of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD). The three claim that they stand for the deprived and the marginalized while their opponents brand them as communal.
“Now we have got to decide who should come to power and who not. In all these decisions and outlooks there is a good deal in common,” says E. Aboobacker, its founder chairman. “The Dalits in UP constitute 22 percent of the population. They are in power in the state. The Muslims are 19 percent but they are nowhere,” he laments.
Both Aboobacker and Abdurrahman were leaders of the now outlawed Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) before launching the NDF 15 years back. They believe that the Muslims and Dalits would together form an indomitable political force in India.
“All the secular parties in India are committing the same mistake — torpedoing the Muslims’ efforts to rise politically. During elections, all these parties bag as many Muslim votes blackmailing them using the BJP threat,” argues Aboobacker. “They are denying the Muslims the opportunity to stand on their own feet.”
The PFI plans to spread its wing into the north India as well.
