Kasaragod: Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has dragged the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Congress into the controversy over the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), a conservative Islamic organisation, holding secret talks with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Vijayan hinted that the two mainstream parties of the United Democratic Front (UDF) could have had a role in the JIH's secret parley with the RSS.

The allegation comes hours after Jamaat-e-Islami Hind accused the chief minister of spreading Islamophobia.

"Though the name is Jamaat-e-Islami, everybody knows it has another form. The form is Welfare Party," Vijayan said. The Welfare Party of India is the political arm of JIH.

In Kerala, the Congress and the IUML are with the Welfare Party, the Chief Minister said. "They have a special chemistry. That is where we have some obvious doubts," he said.

"Did the idea of talk come from the Welfare Party or the trio of the Congress-League-Welfare Party," he said. The UDF should make clear if JIH had a role in the talks with the RSS, he said.

The Chief Minister was speaking at the inauguration of CPM's statewide campaign 'People's Resistance Yatra' at Kumbla in Kasaragod on Monday.

The campaign being led by CPM's state secretary M V Govindan is to highlight the achievements of the LDF government and the "Union government's neglect of the state". It will conclude in Thiruvananthapuram on March 18.

The Chief Minister said the Jamaat-e-Islami held talks with the RSS against the backdrop of the frequent attacks on Muslims and Christians in the country. "Recently two persons were burned to death in a car by the Sangh Parivar (in Haryana). They were innocent but were killed because they were Muslims," he said.

What does the JIH have to talk to the RSS and for whom, the chief minister asked. "Not for the minorities. The people, whether they are minorities or from the majority community, know the communalism of the RSS," he said.

But one section of the Congress has a soft approach towards the RSS, and in the IUML, those who have the power to make decisions take the JIH along, Vijayan said.

Earlier in the day, JIH leader Ameer P Mujeeb Rahman said in Kozhikode that taking up the issues of the minorities with the RSS directly was also a form of protest. He accused the chief minister and the CPM of promoting Islamophobia by slamming the talks.

'Instant triple talaq'

The chief minister attacked the Union government for criminalising instant triple talaq.

"If Muslim men pronounce triple talaq, it is a criminal offence. They are put in jail. But if members of other communities desert their wives, it is not a criminal offence. What kind of justice is this?" he said.

The Citizenship Amendment Act is also against the basic tenets of the Constitution, he said.

'Media freedom in India worse than Emergency days'

The media freedom in the country today is worse than in the Emergency days, said the chief minister citing the report of Reporters Without Borders.

India was ranked 150th among 180 countries in the 2022 edition of the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders, he said. In 2021, India was ranked 142.

Those who put up a resistance face bitter experiences, said Vijayan. "We all know about NDTV," he said.

He alleged the Malayalam media also had fallen into the "Sangh Parivar's pit".