It is now made to look as if CPM Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan's remark that Maoists in Kerala were being encouraged and nourished by extreme Muslim outfits was both unexpected and uncalled for, as though it was a cracker burst at the most unsuspecting moment.
The opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) sounded agitated and the Communist Party of India (CPI), the second-largest constituent in the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), seemed fed up.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPM, too, was quick to disown Mohanan's statement.
Inside the Assembly, industries minister E P Jayarajan, standing in for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, asked the Opposition to ignore "stray street-corner remarks".
Truth is, this is no throwaway line from a loose cannon. This is official CPM thinking.
Two of CPM's intellectually-inclined and admired young leaders P Rajeev and M B Rajesh had dwelt publicly on this 'Muslim terrorist-Maoist' nexus right after the arrest of DYFI workers Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fazal.
This was long before Mohanan spoke out.
“Their foolish understanding of national and global events has caused the Maoists to support all kinds of terrorist activities that are popping up across the world. For them, the Islamic terrorism of ISIS, Taliban and Al Qaeda is an anti-imperialist movement. They even want it strengthened,” Rajesh wrote in the CPM's mouthpiece Deshabhimani on November 7, five days after the arrest of Alan and Thaha.
Two days later, former Rajya Sabha MP P Rajeev wrote in his Deshabhimani column: “Maoists believe the fight against imperialism should be carried out in association with extremist forces in Islam. Maoist leader Kishenji (late military leader of the Maoists, Mallojula Koteswara Rao, who was known as the face of the Maoist movement in India) views Islamic movements as anti-imperialist nationalist liberation forces. The reason why he had argued that class unity should be forged with Islamic terrorists and that terrorism should not be allowed to stand in the way of such a partnership.”
Rajeev even quotes the Egyptian-French Marxian economist Samir Amin to warn the Maoists against an alliance with extreme Islamism.
“It should be pointed out that the organizations of political Islam—the Muslim Brotherhood in particular—are not seeking such an alliance, indeed even reject it. If, by chance, some unfortunate leftist organizations come to believe that political Islamic organizations have accepted them, the first decision the latter would make, after having succeeded in coming to power, would be to liquidate their burdensome ally with extreme violence, as was the case in Iran with the Mujahideen and the Fidayeen Khalq,” Rajeev quotes from Samir Amin's seminal piece 'Political Islam in the Service of Imperialism'.
The same argument has just been given a bluntness, and immediacy, by the CPM's top man in Kozhikode.
“Islamic terrorists are the ones who are now encouraging Maoists in Kerala,” Mohanan said during the valedictory of the district conference of Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union (KSKTU) at Thamarassery in Kozhikode on November 18.
“Muslim Terrorist outfits based in Kozhikode are the strength of the Maoists,” he added.
The CPM's second-in-command in the cabinet, E P Jayarajan, responded as if Mohanan had said something foolish. “People make all kinds of statements at street-corner meetings. Such comments need not be taken seriously,” Jayarajan said when opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala raised the issue in the Assembly on Tuesday.
“Such comments are not fit to be discussed inside the Assembly,” Jayarajan added.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury was disheartened. He was against Maoist ideology, he emphasised. But he also did not want his party men to ignore the social condition that exists in the Maoist areas of influence.
The UDF wanted to know which extremist organisation Mohanan was referring to.
In fact, Mohanan had said “NDF (National Development Front) and other extremist Islamic outfits.” There have been reports that the Police suspect Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) links for Alan and Thaha.
SIMI, banned in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, was banned under UAPA for another five years in February this year. NDF has organic links to SIMI.
CPM's chief ally CPI, too, behaved as though its senior partner had deviated from its original position.
“I am not aware of any Maoist-Islamic terrorist link. I also don't subscribe to the theory that two organisations that function on the basis of two distinct ideologies are in any way linked,” CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran said.
“I have no respect for communists who blindly believe what the police say,” he added for good measure.
BJP, not surprisingly, has latched on to Mohanan's words with glee. BJP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan welcomed Mohanan's statement. “A comprehensive probe should be ordered into the nexus,” Kummanam said.
