Abdul Nazer Mahdani

Ever since the acquittal of the Chief of the Progressive Democratic Party , Abdul Nazer Mahdani, in the sensational Coimbatore blast case both the left and the right (read the Congress) are engaged in one-upmanship in eulogising him in Kerala throwing all the political niceties to wind. For that matter, the PDP is neither progressive nor secular. The party openly espouses extreme Islamic fundamentalist cause. So is the leader Mahdani who used to spew venom at anything unislamic and anyone perceived to be secular. So much so that more often than not his speech bordered antinational and could whip up communal trouble.

Ironically, today the secular partners have no qualms in championing the cause of Mahdani in the name of defending human rights. There are at any point of time thousands of other Prisoners in India, who are deprived of basic human rights, languishing in jails as under-trials prisoners. So the crux of the matter in supporting Mahdani lies else where.

This is a clear instance of vote-bank politics. It is a fact that even so many Kerala Muslims do not concur the extreme views of the rabble-rouser. Then Kerala is a political crucible of Indian politics where coalition politics has been perfected enviably. Now a new kind of secularism is being experimented in Kerala where the minority appeasement and majority bashing is called secularism. Few Kerala politicians have the audacity to call a spade a spade except people like A. K. Anthony, the present Defence Minister to a certain extent.