Is CPM training guns on Bengaluru razing to reclaim Muslim votes?
MALAPPURAM: For the past several days, Keralas CPM leadership has trained its political fire on demolition sites in Bengaluru, unleashing a sustained attack on the Congress-led Karnataka government over what it describes as an anti-Muslim action. Yet, within Keralas political corridors, the sudden intensity of the partys intervention is being read less as minority outreach and more as political damage control aimed at reclaiming a slipping Muslim vote base. The backdrop is unmistakable. The Indian Union Muslim Leagues landslide victory in Malappuram and the UDFs strong showing across Muslim-majority pockets of Malabar have deeply unsettled the CPM, raising uncomfortable questions within the party about its eroding credibility among minority voters. This erosion did not happen overnight. A stream of communally loaded remarks by CPM leaders in the run-up to the local body elections, along with the partys silence on and, at times, perceived endorsement of controversial statements by SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan against the Muslim community, are widely seen as having decisively tilted Muslim-dominated regions away from the left. With the assembly election approaching, the CPM now appears keen to leverage the Bengaluru demolition controversy as a political reset button. Significantly, it was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who first elevated the issue to a political flashpoint, breaking from the convention of cautious engagement with neighbouring states. In a sharply worded Facebook post, he termed the demolition of Fakir Colony and Waseem Layout in Yelahanka settlements where Muslims had lived for decades in Bengaluru shocking and painful, and accused the Congress government of importing the North Indian bulldozer raj model to the South. The implication was clear: The Congress, not the BJP, was now being placed in the dock over minority rights. The chief ministers intervention was swiftly followed by a coordinated party push. CPM Rajya Sabha MP A A Rahim rushed to the site and mounted an aggressive public campaign against the Karnataka government, claiming credit for forcing national attention on Fakir Colony. The Muslim community there was denied justice, and there was no one to speak for them. It was the intervention of Pinarayi Vijayan, the DYFI and the CPM that brought this injustice to light, Rahim said, while taking a swipe at AICC general secretary K C Venugopal for remaining silent until the issue gained traction. However, the CPMs narrative was quickly challenged by the Muslim League. The partys national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty accused the left of attempting to communalise the issue for political mileage, asserting that Fakir Colony was not exclusively a Muslim settlement. Some people rushed in to give this issue a communal colour for narrow political gain. The public will see through this politics. People from multiple communities live there, and the issue must be addressed on humanitarian grounds, Kunhalikutty said, adding that the Karnataka government would implement a rehabilitation plan and that the IUML had already taken up the matter with the Congress leadership. The rebuttal triggered an immediate counter from the CPM. Former minister and LDFs Thavanur MLA K T Jaleel, who also visited the demolition site, told TNIE that over 85% of residents were Muslims and dismissed allegations of political opportunism. These are fakirs who sing Qawwali at dargahs and have lived in the colony for years, which is how the settlement got its name. Nearly 85% of residents belong to the Muslim minority, though others also live there. The CPM has no political agenda here; this is purely a humanitarian intervention, Jaleel said. He also launched a direct attack on the IUML, accusing it of spreading misinformation to safeguard its electoral turf. The League is circulating false narratives against the CPM to protect its vote bank. Whatever they say, people are no longer going to believe them, he said. As political posturing intensifies, the Bengaluru demolitions have become a proxy battlefield for Keralas minority politics, with the CPM attempting to recast itself as the principal defender of Muslim rights, the Congress on the defensive, and the IUML determined not to cede ground. Meanwhile IUML state president Sayyid Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that the manner in which the eviction was carried out was not right. The humanitarian consequences of the eviction and demolition of houses by the Karnataka government appear to have been overlooked. What unfolded in Bengaluru should never have happened. Even if the government had legal grounds to act, the manner in which the eviction was carried out raises serious concerns. Reclaiming government land cannot justify bulldozer-style actions that disregard the lives and dignity of those affected, Thangal said.
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