Madhany-haters and human lovers!

The pro-Sangh apostles of democracy can’t tolerate a moderate Madhany

There is a hue and cry over Abdul Nasar Madhany’s entry into the mainstream politics in Kerala. Both the Sangh Parivar and the Congress-led opposition parties are peeved at Madhany’s bonhomie with the CPM-led Left front in the state.

Hardcore Hindutva extremists and ‘liberal’ and ‘secular’ Congress are clamouring about Madhany’s terror links. For the Congress party it is simply a case of sour grapes, for it had no problems when PDP extended its support to the party in previous elections. The dynasty party didn’t find any ‘extremism’ in the PDP then. Now with the PDP deciding to support the Left, Congress simply can’t stomach it.

The past...

Of course, Madhany was not a saint. His avatar as an alternative to rightwing nationalist Hindutva forces in the 1990's had posed a great threat to Kerala's secular fabric in as much as the Sangh Parivar had done to the state.

He in fact is the product of Muslim insecurity in Kerala post-Babari, by trying to emerge as the savior of Muslims by exploiting this feeling. The decadence of Muslim League, the party of elite Biriyani-gobblers, coupled with the emergence and strengthening of rightwing Hindutva extremists, provided a fertile ground for Madhany. ISS, the outfit he floated and got banned later along with the RSS post-Babari, was his answer to the RSS. To be precise a 'Muslim RSS'!

His fiery speeches antagonised not only the Sangh Parivar but also the Muslim League, for whom Madhany posed a formidable threat, for, here was a man for the first time attacking the League’s shenanigan and elitist ways. In his speeches, he showed the temerity to attack League's supreme God Shihab Thangal.

In one of his speeches Madhany had said: “It is halaal (good practice) to visit chronically ill patients. I just visited one such patient: the Muslim League!”

All those fiery speeches and his appearances (he used to be accompanied by body guards) earned him notoriety. After ISS was banned along with RSS post-Babari he floated PDP.

Soon came his arrest. The timing of his arrest is still intriguing. Madhany along with ex-Naxal leaders K. Ajitha and K. Kunhikannan, decided to initiate a state-wide agitation on the Kozhikode ice-cream sex scandal case in which Muslim League leader Kunhalikutty was an accused. On the very third day (31st March, 1998) Madhany was picked up by Kozhikode Kasaba police on a charge of making provocative speech that took place five years ago. None asked why Madhany was not arrested during those five years after the arrest warrant was issued in the case of making the provocative speech.

Soon after arresting Madhany on charges of making provocative speech, he was transferred to the Tamil Nadu police in connection with the Coimbatore bomb blast case.

The Tamil Nadu police wanted to grill Madhany as they found that Basha, the key accused in the Coimbatore bomb blast case, had a one-and-half minute’s conversation with someone in the office of Muslim Review, a magazine ran by Madhany at that time. In the very next issue of Muslim Review an interview with Basha was published. In fact, the phone call was made from the magazine’s Kochi office to Basha for arranging the interview.

The rest is history. After almost nine years of illegal detention he was freed because the prosecution couldn’t find a shred of evidence linking him to the Coimbatore blast case.

And the present...

Those who are now whining about Madhany’s terror links want him to be behind the bars till eternity, no matter whether he has terror links or not. In their minds he still is the face of terror, no matter his attempts to shake that image off.

He has admitted many a time to his erroneous ways in his ISS-PDP avatars pre-jail days and has challenged the accusers to prove his terror links. The fact that he has an unsavoury past doesn’t mean he has no rights to lead a political life. If Madhany still has terror links/suspicious links no doubt the law of the land should take its course.

All these Madhany-haters have no problems with the Sangh Parivar’s killer machines and its hate politics. Madhany hasn’t caused the death of people, unlike those Modis and Thackareys, indicted for mass murders. When all those hate-mongers remain scot-free, it is unjust and unethical to single out and attack Madhany.

In his hey days with ISS and PDP, he was no greater threat than rightwing Hindutva leaders. But while the Sangh Parivar hate-mongers gained acceptance in the state's mainstream political parlance, Madhany assumed the aura of a hardcore militant.

The tendency to bay for Madhany's blood and keep a prejudiced view on him has to do with the general anti-Muslim feelings in our society and the Sangh-parroted all-Muslim-are-terrorists hogwash that runs deep in our psyche.