Editorial: Clipping the terror wings

The onus is on the Centre to stamp out communalism, no matter whether it is propagated by the majority or minority community

The ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), following the unearthing of incontrovertible evidence of its links to foreign terrorist organisations and involvement in terror financing and targeted attacks, is a welcome move in the interests of India’s internal security. However, it needs to be followed with stern action against the rabble-rousing outfit’s overground political wing, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). The PFI can continue to pursue its nefarious agenda as long as the SDPI enjoys leeway to conduct its operations. The central agencies must constantly keep tabs on this party and any laxity can have adverse consequences for social harmony as well as law and order. In the context of ban on the PFI, under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, there have been demands, including from the Congress, to take similar action against the RSS, the fountainhead of Hindutva. The onus is on the Central government to stamp out communalism, no matter whether it is propagated by the majority or minority community. Last week, the Supreme Court had pulled up the Centre for failing to curb the menace of hate speeches and had insisted on a robust regulatory framework to rein in troublemakers. While there is no doubt that the crackdown on outfits inciting hatred and violence should not be confined to any particular community, there is also a need to resist the temptation of drawing false equivalences. The involvement of the PFI, whose activists are facing over 1,300 criminal cases across the country, in serious offences like terrorism and its financing, and targeted gruesome killings is far too grave to be ignored.

The PFI’s links with global terrorist groups such as the Islamic State cannot be overlooked. The fanatic outfit has been fuelling anti-national sentiments and radicalising a section of society with the intention of disturbing peace and public order. The ban comes over a decade after the Kerala government had told the High Court that the PFI was nothing but a new avatar of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The Home Ministry has concluded that the PFI constituted a major threat to internal security of the country. The declaration of the PFI and its affiliates as “unlawful associations” allows law enforcement agencies to freeze their bank accounts and seize assets, choking their funding activities. Fighting the PFI’s brand of hate politics requires a nuanced political response. The outfit shot into prominence more than a decade ago when its operatives chopped off the hand of a Kerala professor, TJ Joseph, holding him guilty of insulting Prophet Mohammad. It emerged from a radical strand in Muslim politics that found resonance within a section of the community after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition and the rise of Hindutva politics.

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