No scope for subversion!

With the ban declared on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and eight of its affiliates by the Ministry of Home Affairs has raised
much hue and cry in a section of leaders who have been always known to be on the opposite side of official action. PFI and
its affiliates are now an unlawful association for five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. Some
criticism of government action come up from a section of known religious, political and media voices trying to equate the PFI
with some right wing social organisations pursuing core Indian values. Such attempts are uncalled for and should be avoided
at least when activities detrimental to security of the state are being faced. Some tried to justify the PFI activities attributing to
the ‘divisive' politics of the present ruling dispensation.
The counter point reminds such a political and so called intellectual element, that the present dispensation came to power
only in 2014 while the PFI has been indulging into their dubious activities since its inception in 2006 i.e. during the heydays of
‘staunch secularists'.
PFI was founded in 2006 with the merger of the Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) and the National Development Front
(NDF). The organisation purportedly described itself as a “neo-social movement committed to empower people to ensure
justice, freedom and security”.
With the aim of expanding its influence among various Muslim social segments, including youth, students, women,
Imams, attorneys, and other professionals, it has established a number of fronts. The goal is to increase membership in
order to increase influence and fundraising potential.
The government has frequently accused PFI of taking part in anti-social and anti-national activities. The Kerala
government asserted in 2012 that the group was a revival of the Indian Mujahideen affiliate Students Islamic Movement of
India (SIMI), a terrorist organisation that had been outlawed.
Investigations found that PFI employees were involved in crimes like cold-blooded assassinations, dismemberment, and
procuring explosives to target important individuals or public property. According to the notification, the main goal of such
acts was to disturb the peace and quiet of the public. The MHA lists a number of slayings where PFI men are reportedly
implicated in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. A Kerala college professor's hand was allegedly chopped off by PFI
members in 2010 because they had included a contentious test question.
Several PFI cadres were murdered or detained for their involvement in terrorist activities in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. They
were also accused in the murders of Sanjith (Kerala November 2021), V Ramalingam, (Tamil Nadu, 2019), Nandu, (Kerala 2021),
Abhimanyu (Keral, 2018), Bibin (Kerala 2017), Sharath (Karnataka 2017), R Rudresh (Karnataka 2016), Parveen Pujari
(Karanataka 2016), Sashi Kumar (Tamil Nadu 2016) and Parveen Nettaru (Karnataka 2022)
The Union government decided to outlaw the group for a number of reasons, including the PFI's attempts to radicalise
weak members of the community, its connections to other terrorist groups like ISIS, and—most importantly—its involvement
in high-profile violent incidents that put India's internal security at risk. The PFI joins the likes of LeT, JeM, SIMI, and al
Qaeda on the list of organisations that have been monitored for over a decade.
In a country like India, where secularism is deeply ingrained in its ethos and psyche, there should be no scope of such subversive
organisations on any pretext or justification.