Thiruvananthapuram
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has embarked on a campaign to dispel the propaganda that the party had wooed fundamentalist forces to its fold and struck brazenly radical positions on social issues to stabilise its "shaky" base in North Kerala.
As part of the outreach, IUML general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty on Tuesday met Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, the current major archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, here. He had met Thamarassery Bishop Remigiose Inchananiyil in Kozhikode earlier.
The IUML felt that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were on the same page when it came to stoking up Islamophobia to draw Hindu and Christian votes away from the United Democratic Front (UDF) ahead of the Assembly elections in mid-2021.
The party aspired to reopen the robust communication channels it had traditionally maintained with Christian sects and Hindu social organisations. The IUML was already in agreement with few backward class organisations on the reservation issue and hoped to build on the relationship to benefit the UDF in the Assembly elections in 2021.
The party wanted to counteract the "disinformation" that a "weakened" Congress would soon be in thrall to a "resurgent" IUML. IUML leaders had stated that they would not make heavy demands on the Congress during Assembly seat-sharing talks.
The poor showing of the UDF in the local body polls had lent some credence to the theory that the LDF and the BJP were modestly successful in curbing its influence among Hindu and Christian voters in south and central Kerala by alleging that the Congress, at the behest of the IUML, had struck an alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami in North Kerala.
The BJP had claimed an increased acceptance among Christians in central Travancore at the UDF's expense stating that the community shared the party's concern about issues such as "love jihad" and Islamic fundamentalism.
The CPI(M) had accused the IUML of accepting the spiritual leadership of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The party said the IUML had in a newspaper article supported the Turkey government's decision to change the iconic Hagia Sophia's status in Istanbul from a historical museum to a mosque to appease fundamentalists.
