This might sound gross, but it is true. The Coimbatore bomb blast prime accused Abdul Nazar Mahdani has made a public appeal to Muslims to vote for the Left in the Kerala Assembly polls in May. For the uninitiated, Mahdani is the Sanjay Dutt of Coimbatore serial bomb blasts. Now spot the difference between the two: Mahdani is the main accused in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts during the visit of L.K. Advani which killed 58 people. Mahdani has been in jail for the last 8 years. Political parties of all hues-the LDF alliance of the Left and the Congress-led UDF, except for the BJP, and-you guessed it-the intellectuals have all time and again sought his release from prison. Needless to say, People'sDemocratic Party (PDP) floated by Mahdani has always been supported by the Congress. And we thought Sanjay Dutt was a singular case for the Congress. The Congress actually got PDP on its side and the Muslims votes along with it with the promise that they will persuade the Tamil Nadu government to release Mahdani. The Congress-led UDF even wrote a petition signed by nearly 100 MLAs to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam seeking Mahdani'srelease.
Human Rights organisations have put up virulent articles on the internet to get his release. Now comes the last coincidence: Like Sanjay Dutt, Mahdani is the prize catch for inveterate secular political parties. The CPI(M) member of Parliament from Kerala T.K. Hamsa has been holding talks with Mahdani, not surreptitiously, in the jail seeking his support in the elections. All this happened even as the CPI(M) at the Centre which supports the UPA government makes shrill secular noises. The website of the CPI(M) even gives a link to a blog site gobackglobalterrorist.com on George Bush'svisit to India! But Mahdani, a self-acclaimed Islamic jehadist, is no terrorist for the Left.
CPI(M) Deshabhimani website had given pride of place to its General Secretary Prakash Karat'sarticle in which he does not even mince words: ?The Congress leadership in Kerala is marked by its willingness to join hands with all varieties of communalists. The People'sDemocratic Party (PDP) led by Mahdani, which is an extremist Muslim organisation, has declared support for the UDF??. This was posted on April 29, 2001.
?The tragedy is that people have no real idea how dangerous it is for the political parties to get hand-in-glove with the terrorists. Moreover, the Left propaganda machinery is so strong and wide in Kerala, especially in the mainstream Malayalam newspapers, that coverage of such issues is stiffled. And lastly, there is no doubt that the Muslim votes will sway in favour of the LDF considering its secularism agenda??, a villager from Thennur in Palakkad district who didn'twant to be named told Organiser.
But in the south of Kerala the support that Mahdani'sPDP has wide acceptance with the Muslim community just as in the north. ?Since the bomb blasts when the Congress had teamed up with Mahdani, even the mosques were used to launch a propaganda in favour of the local candidates. And indoctrination being the strong point of the ulema (who are best known as the arbiters of shariat) where the followers don'tquestion the edicts, voting pattern is more or less predictable??, the villager explained.
