National Development Front

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NDF poster in Alappuzha, calling for solidarity with Palestine
NDF poster in Alappuzha, calling for solidarity with Palestine

National Development Front, abbreviated as NDF, is a right wing, Islamist organisation in Kerala, India established in 1993, claiming to focus on socio-enonomical issues of minorities giving a focus to Kerala Muslims, Dalits and Other Backward Classes in Kerala.[1]
NDF recently has announced about its plan of adhering to the dawa (missionary work)of aggressively propagating Islam among other communities,P Koya, NDF supreme council member wrote an article in the Thejas magazine ,the organization's mouthpiece that "Many Muslim organisations hold the view that dawa work is fundamental to Muslims. But the same organisations pay scant attention to the work".[2]
Its slogan is Swathantryam - Neethi - Surakrsha which means Freedom, Justice and Security. In 1997 it stood behind the formation of the Confederation of Human Rights Organizations, founded in Kozhikode.

The NDF has been accused of tying up with Pakistan-backed ISI related activities in Kerala.[3][4] The organisation has also been categorised as a militant group [5], and was one among the five hardline groups that had come under the scanner of Union home ministry in 2006, for "fanning fanaticism".[6]

Contents

[edit] History

Inspired by pan-Islamic reactionary movements across the country after the 1992 Babri masjid events fundamentalist elements gained a firm footing in the Malabar region. After the proscription of Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS).[7] and Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the Kerala police alleges that National Development Front (NDF), which masquerades as a human rights movement, is another re-incarnation of the ISS[8]

The National Development Front has 13 Supreme Council members, one among them is Prof P. Koya who was also one among the founding members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).[9]

[edit] NDF and Human Rights Movements

In 1997 NDF has conducted the National Humanrights Conference in Kozhikode where many human rights activists and NDF activists participated. Based on the discussion and understanding, a new organisation is formed called Confederation of Human Rights Organisation.[4].

NDF has aggressively propagandized their claim to "represent the rights of minorities".up to and including launching a "minorities campaign" to gain popular publicity.[10][11]

NDF has worked very closely with Journalist associated with Thejas Mukundan C Menon and CHRO, who is closely tied with Human Rights Watch International.[12]

NDF has recently decided to bring the like minded organization together for expanding its activities "for the oppressed and the minorities to the rest of the country".[13]

NDF has conducted different movements, demonstrations, rallies and other democratic strikes to achieve:[14][15]

  • To defend the human rights atrocities from Police, Military, Government and non governmental agencies.[16]
  • Special Recruitments for Jobs and Educational posts where they were denied the seats according to the governmental rules.[15]
  • For implementing the reservation and allowances for the backward communities for bringing them up to the main stream society.
  • The rights of OBC minorities enforcing the government and its agencies to help the downtrodden in the society.
NDF Tsunami Fund -- Poster
NDF Tsunami Fund -- Poster

[edit] Relief activities

NDF has actively involved in helping the sufferers of Tsunami victims of Kerala and Tamilnadu along with other volunteers of different parties and organisaitons. NDF has Rehabilitated many Tsunami Victims providing necessities and shelter. The high tidal attack, tsunami had wiped out many of the houses and facilities during end of year 2005. The main focus was to make the victims the basic necessities like drinking water and food. The volunteers were able to get the odd requirements of[17]

[edit] Empower India Conference & Popular Front

NDF is in coalition with Popular Front of India and has co-operated in the Empower India Conference, which is held at Bangalore in February 2007.[18] Popular Front of India is an organisation with an agenda to bring the underprivileged and the marginalized sections like dalits, backward classes and minority communities to come on one platform. The conference is expected to motivate the underprivileged and marginalized sections like dalits, backward classes and minority communities to work for human rights and social justice.[19][20]

[edit] Criticism

The NDF is accused of being a communal outfit and members of the organization have been implicated in violent incidents like the 2002 Marad massacre.[21] The Thomas P Joseph Commission report found that "activists of IUML and NDF, a Muslim outfit, were actively involved in the massacre"[22] NDF has also been blamed for inciting violence against moderate Muslims in Kerala, in opposition to liberal and reformist Islamic movements and individuals.[23] and that "involvement of fundamentalists and terrorists" was behind the incident.[22]

The BJP have put forward allegations that NDF maintains links with Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence.[24] The Indian National Congress (who are politically opposed to the BJP) has also raised doubts about the true nature of their activities. On October 31, 2006, the Congress launched a campaign against terrorism in Malappuram district in Kerala, simultaneously taking on parties and organizations such as the IUML, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the National Development Front (NDF) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP).[25]. In addition, the State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, has said that NDF was involved in the Marad massacre and referred to them as a "terrorist outfit" that executed a "planned mass murder".[26]

[edit] Foreign connection

Ms Neera Rawat IPS, Senior Superintendent of Police, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, deposed before the Marad Judicial Inquiry Commission, Justice Thomas P. Joseph (reference Marad massacre) that the Kozhikode Special Branch during her tenure as Kozhikode City Police Commissioner from March 22, 1997 to May 16 1999. She also added before the Inquiry Commission that the police had prepared confidential and authentic reports that ISI and Iran were the fund sponsors of the NDF.[27].

Assistant Commissioner of Police(ACP) Special Branch, Ernamkulam, A.V. George deposed before Marad inquiry panel on 29/10/2005 that a key witness in an illegal arms possession case had given a statement to the police during its investigation that the National Development Front (NDF) had been receiving crores of rupees as funds from foreign countries to carry out its training programmes. ACP George also added quoting the testimony made by arrested NDF cadres that NDF had been sending people to Pakistan for the last several years.[28]

[edit] Kottakkal Police station attack

Police had accused that National Development Front (NDF) activists attacked the Kottakkal police station at Kottakkal in Malappuram district in the early hours of 23rd March 2007 following the arrest of two senior leaders of the front. The attack was repulsed by the Police and got 27 activist into custody.[29].

[edit] Modus Operandi

Frontline magazine quotes a senior police officer that the NDF had successfully exploited the sense of insecurity created in the Muslim community by the events that followed the Babri Masjid demolition to find supporters in northern Kerala, irrespective of their political or other allegiances the report adds "Initially, no NDF member used to acknowledge openly that he was an NDF member. Always they would say that they were members of other organisations. The truth may be that members of several organisations were members of the NDF also. Now the NDF has several wings and is making a major effort to project itself as a socio-cultural organisation of Muslims."[30]

[edit] Pakistan MP's visit row

Pakistan MP Mohammed Thaha Mohammed's visit to Thalassery on Apr 29, 2007 has sparked a controversy, with activists of the BJP and other Sangh Parivar groups staging a march to the hotel where Mohammed was staying, claiming that leaders of a few Muslim outfits, including the Kerala-based National Development Front (NDF) were seen visiting the MP. Mohammed Thaha Mohammed represents Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in Pakistan's parliament.[31]

[edit] Additional Views

Haifa University political scientist David Bukay lists the NDF as one of the many organizations, which he calls as "fundamentalist and subversive groups" [32].Following the wake of the 11 July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings, the NDF,along with other Islamist organizations, was being closely monitored by authorities for terrorist links.[33]. The organization has attracted numerous Islamic Fundamentalists to their ranks, and, as such, stand compared to several more well-known militant Islamist groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and others[34].

[edit] Implementation of religious code

The NDF is alleged to be involved in efforts to push the Islamic Sharia code among the moderate and cosmopolitan Muslim society in Kerala, an act viewed by moderate Muslims and secularists as "Talibanization".A typical case reported by media is killing Fakir Uppappa or Siddhan, killed in November for indulging in "un-Islamic spiritualism".[35]

A muslim was murdered in Punalur for his binding with Leftist oganization [DYFI]. The media reports involving the killing of CPI(M)’s Ashraf in Punalur in Kollam district points towards this.[36]

NDF has also been accused of targeting the liberals in the community - those who do not strictly follow Islamic laws like abstaining from liquor, fasting during Ramadan and wearing the makhna or the purdah.[37]

[edit] NDF's response to criticisms

The National Development Front denied involvement in the Marad massacre. It alleged that the perpetrators arrested for the acts were not members of their organization[38] and blamed the entire incident on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other "Fascist Hindus", evoking anti-Hindu canards on their website.[39] In addition, they made veiled threats implying that there will "be trouble" if "innocent Muslims were persecuted by the police".[38]They also declared that they "welcomed the CBI investigation" into the Marad riots.[39]

In response to general criticisms about thir organization, the NDF criticized the media and the authorities for their portrayal of the organization as a militant outfit. An NDF spokesperson said:[40]

"Mediapersons have been misled by Intelligence authorities to believe that the NDF was a militant organisation. They had said the same thing about Congress during the freedom struggle."

[edit] NDF Freedom Parade

NDF Freedom Parade 2006
NDF Freedom Parade 2006

NDF has conducted Freedom Parades with the slogan "Be the sentinel of freedom."[41] in major cities of Kerala in 2004, 2005,[42] and in 2006.[43] The parades have become one of the major activities on the Indian Independence Day.[44]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ ¤The Jihad Within Rediff On The NeT
    ¤The Muslim Rightwing in Kerala M G Radhakrishnan India Today, February 15, 1999
    ¤America: PostGlobal A Professor Praises Terrorism Amar C. Bakshi July 20, 2007 Washington Post
  2. ^ 'Major Muslim outfits not good missionaries' - Newindpress.com
  3. ^ The Hindu : Kerala News : ISI, Iran funded NDF: Rawat
  4. ^ a b NDF in ties with Confederation of Human Rights Organisations
  5. ^ Building new bases, Frontline (magazine),Volume 24 - Issue 24 :: Dec. 08-21, 2007
  6. ^ Govt keeping an eye on five hardline groups-India-The Times of India
  7. ^ http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/28isi.htm)
  8. ^ ::IDSA Strategic Comments:: Is Kerala Emerging as India's New Terror Hub? ::
  9. ^ America: PostGlobal on washingtonpost.com
  10. ^ NDF Minorities Campign [1]
  11. ^ CHRO Website [2]
  12. ^ HRW Report [3]
  13. ^ NDF to widen organizational set-up [4]
  14. ^ NDF for Social Justice [5]
  15. ^ a b NDF to take out black march[6]
  16. ^ Widespread protests against death sentence[7]
  17. ^ Relief activities in progress - The Hindu[8]
  18. ^ Create broad-based alliance of all oppressed sections[9]
  19. ^ PFI's 'Empower India Conf.' in Bangalore from Feb. 15 - 17, 2007 [10]
  20. ^ Main Events of Empower India Conference. [11]
  21. ^ R. Krishnakumar, Marad shocks, Frontline (magazine), Volume 23, Issue 20, Oct. 07-20, 2006 accessed at [12] Dec 29, 2006
  22. ^ a b Marad massacre: Kerala govt for CBI probe Times of India - September 27, 2006
  23. ^ Communalism Combat March 1999
  24. ^ The Bharatiya Janata Party seeks inquiry into NDF-ISI links The Hindu - May 20, 2005
  25. ^ Congress' anti-terrorism campaign in Malappuram,The Hindu
  26. ^ UDF Slept As Marad Burned, by Aboo Backer, CPI(M) weekly
  27. ^ The Hindu : Kerala News : ISI, Iran funded NDF: Rawat
  28. ^ The Hindu : Kerala News : `NDF received aid from foreign countries'
  29. ^ The Hindu : Kerala News : NDF activists attack Kottakkal police station; 27 arrested
  30. ^ http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1505/15051230.htm
  31. ^ The Hindu : National : Pakistan MP's visit to Kerala sparks row
  32. ^ Bukay, David (2004). Muhammad's Monsters: A Comprehensive Guide to Radical Islam for Western Audiences P177-178 (in English). New Leaf Press. ISBN 0892215763. “Evidence of these processes [preparation for large-scale acts of terror] is mounting throughout India, and is reflected in the number of fundamentalist and subversive groups that exist, and the geographical spread of their activities. The most prominent of these include the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the All India Milli Council, All India Jihad Committee, The People's Democratic Party, Muslim United Front, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagham, National Development Front, Students Islamic Movement of India, among others” 
  33. ^ The Hindu : Other States / Pondicherry News : Police on alert after Mumbai blasts
  34. ^ Ahamkaari (2003). "4", Will I Be Killed?: (for Writing the Following Contents. ..) P331 (in English). iUniverse. ISBN 0595275915. “Kerala is witnessing more and more recruits into this extremist Islamic ideology". When the names are the alarming "Lashkar-e-Toiba" and "Hizbul Mujahiddeen" in the "uneducated North", it is very humorously garbed as "National Development Front" in the south"” 
  35. ^ Kerala's extremist outfit of many faces
  36. ^ Kerala's extremist outfit of many faces
  37. ^ [sacw] The Muslim Rightwing in Kerala
  38. ^ a b NDF denies accusation in Marad massacre [13]
  39. ^ a b NDF welcomed CBI Probe [14]
  40. ^ News from The Hindu[15]
  41. ^ Be the sentinel of freedom [16]
  42. ^ Freedom Parade 2005 [17]
  43. ^ NDF Freedom Parade Report from The Hindu[18]
  44. ^ Major Indian Independence Day Activities In Kerala[19]

[edit] External links

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