Ban on PFI

Following nationwide raids on the offices of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the detention of scores of its members, the Centre has banned the Islamist group and its associates/affiliates for five years, citing their involvement in ‘serious offences, including terrorism and its financing, and targeted gruesome killings.’ The government has thus reaffirmed its zero-tolerance stand on organisations fuelling anti-national sentiments and radicalising a section of society with the intention of disturbing peace and public order. The PFI’s alleged links with global terrorist groups such as the Islamic State should be thoroughly probed.

The ban comes an entire decade after the Kerala Government had told the High Court that the PFI was nothing but an avatar of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The move is welcome in the interests of India’s internal security, but it’s only a job half done. The rabble-rousing organisation’s overground political wing, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), has not been outlawed so far. The SDPI has been quick to condemn the action against the PFI, alleging that ‘freedom of speech, protests and organisations have been ruthlessly suppressed by the regime against the basic principles of the Constitution.’ The PFI can continue to pursue its nefarious agenda as long as the SDPI enjoys leeway to conduct its operations. Central agencies would have to constantly keep tabs on this party; any laxity can have adverse consequences for social harmony as well as law and order.

The Centre’s decisive step has provoked the Congress to demand a similar ban on the RSS on the charge of spreading ‘Hindu communalism’. The party has accused the government of adopting a pick-and-choose approach and demonising minorities. Indeed, the crackdown on outfits inciting hatred and violence should not be confined to one community. Last week, the Supreme Court had pulled up the Union government for failing to curb the menace of hate speeches and had insisted on a robust regulatory framework to rein in troublemakers. The onus is on the powers that be to stamp out communalism, no matter whether it is propagated by the majority or minority community.