On Monday, the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, hit out at the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), for infiltrating the supposedly “peaceful” Anti-CAA protests. He squarely blamed the radical Islamist organization for creating “communal disharmony” in the state.
Kerala CM P Vijayan in the Assembly: Extremist groups like SDPI is trying to create unrest using anti-CAA protests. The state govt can’t allow this. Police will slap cases against such people. Any attempts to create communal disharmony in the state will be strongly dealt with. pic.twitter.com/dfnO83mauf
— ANI (@ANI) February 3, 2020
Pinarayi Vijayan was answering a question about the arrest of 200 anti-CAA protestors. He had earlier stated that no case had been filed against peaceful protestors but action had been taken against those involved in acts of violence.
This led to a verbal altercation between the ruling and the Opposition benches. Vijayan questioned, “Why is the opposition getting agitated when I mention the name of SDPI? Are they saying that I should not talk about SDPI and extremism?”
Following the murder of SFI activist Abhimanyu in 2018, Kerala CPIM leader Thomas Issac had also called for a “social boycott” of extremist religious organizations such as PFI and SDPI.
After information surfaced that these radical Islamist organizations were planning to eliminate BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy had told the media that the government was planning to take stern action against these organisations.
The killing of its own party member in 2019 had also prompted the Congress party to snap ties with both SDPI and PFI. In December last year, two radical Islamists who joined the ISIS were allegedly associated with SDPI’s sister organization, PFI.
