Palestine issue gives CPM another opening to IUML in Kerala, Congress closes options

While the Congress is openly fighting the CPI(M) on all fronts, the IUML said it wants a common platform of all the parties on the Palestine issue. After turning down the CPI(M)’s November 11 invite, IUML general secretary P K Kunhalikutty said the decision was only on technical grounds. “We are only happy to join hands with the CPI(M) for the Palestine cause. But being an ally of the Congress, we cannot technically take part in that event. We are happy the CPI(M) is conducting that rally and we were invited for it. We want all parties to stand together on the Palestine issue,” he said.

However, the CPI(M) has kept the invitation open to the IUML’s cadres and supporters. CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan on Sunday said, “Although IUML leaders would not take part in our Palestine rally, we hope the party’s followers would take part. The Congress has prevented the IUML from attending the CPI(M) rally,” he said.

The CPI(M) is keeping its doors open to the IUML after realising that a section of its leaders and workers are willing to find common ground with the Left on the Palestine issue. The CPI(M) had extended an invitation to the IUML only after its senior leader and Lok Sabha MP E T Muhammed Basheer said “(the IUML) would take part if invited”. The invitation forced the IUML into a huddle on Saturday, before it was turned down in an unusually polite manner for a member of the Opposition UDF.

In its outreach to the IUML, the CPI(M) will be buoyed by its existing rapport with the Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama, a powerful body of pro-IUML Muslim scholars. Recently, the IUML had openly expressed its reservations against Samastha leaders hobnobbing with the CPI(M). After the CPI(M) announced the Kozhikode rally, to which the Samastha will send a delegate, a section in the group said it wanted the IUML to attend as well.

The IUML’s leadership, however, has maintained silence on Govindan’s invite to its party workers. But the Congress has insisted the IUML will skip the rally entirely, with senior legislator and Opposition leader V D Satheesan saying, “No IUML worker will take part in the CPI(M) rally. IUML cadres will stand with the decision of their party leadership. The Congress has no worry about it.”

In fact, amid a raft of issues affecting the Muslim community in recent years, the CPI(M) has managed to gain the confidence of a large section of the community. The party’s leading role in the agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in 2020 was acknowledged by the Samastha. In July this year, when the BJP government at the Centre raised the Uniform Civil Code, the CPI(M) invited the IUML for a seminar on the issue. The IUML was initially in favour of attending, but later turned down the invite citing the Congress’s exclusion. In that issue too, the Samastha supported the CPI(M).

On the Palestine issue, there are some opposing views within the Congress too. Recently, state general secretary Aryadan Shoukath organised a Palestine solidarity rally, defying the party directive. The Congress has now issued him a show-cause notice. “The incident shows that anyone who conducts pro-Palestine rallies cannot continue in the Congress, which is with Israel. India-Israel relations flourished during the Congress regime. That history does not allow the Congress to take a firm stand against Israel now. The Congress has now become a liability for the IUML,” Shoukath said.

After the IUML turned down the latest invite to the Palestine rally, the CPI(M) is building up the narrative that the Congress is increasingly at odds with the Muslim party.

Although the IUML has reiterated its commitment to the UDF, the moderate Muslim party has retreated from many political issues in the state of late. While the Congress has been attacking the Left government repeatedly on several issues including corruption and financial mismanagement, the IUML leadership has remained largely silent.

Instead, the party has been concentrating on ‘emotional issues’ at the national level. Within the state, the party has fervently taken on the government only on community issues such as the hijab row, gender-neutral school uniforms and appointments to the state Wakf Board. On such issues, the CPI(M) has ultimately heard the concerns raised by the IUML and other Muslim groups.