Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday sought to scotch the Opposition speculation that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was actively scouting for new alliance partners from the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) by casting a morally authoritative stance on the Palestine issue as a lure.
Mr. Vijayan said the CPI(M) had invited the IUML to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) rally to voice solidarity with the besieged and bombed people of Gaza and West Bank after a senior League leader evinced interest in participating in the public event at Kozhikode on November 11.
Later, the IUML leadership discussed the invitation and declined it politely without distancing itself from the CPI(M)‘s stance on Palestine. Mr. Vijayan claimed that the IUML expressed a practical difficulty in attending the rally while remaining in the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition.
‘Political propriety’
“The UDF is of no political consequence without the IUML. The party showed the political propriety necessary in an alliance. The CPI(M) is not on any course to enfeeble the Congress. Nevertheless, the party feels that Congress’s position on the Palestine question is ambivalent and divergent from the point of view of the party’s founding fathers,” he said.
Mr. Vijayan said the Congress’s Indian Independence movement leaders batted for a two-state solution to the Palestine issue. He said they expressed deep solidarity with people who were exiles in their own land. However, the Narasimha Rao government changed tack. It opened diplomatic relations with Israel at the instance of the United States. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party stayed the course more strongly to appease the U.S.’s imperialist and neo-colonial policies.
Row over Shoukath
Mr. Vijayan said Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Aryadan Shoukath’s pro-Palestine stance was in line with the Congress of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
However, the current Congress leadership in Kerala perceived Mr. Shoukath’s support for Palestine and the rally he organised for the cause of the embattled people as anti-party activity.
When asked whether the LDF reckoned Mr. Shoukath a potential candidate for the Ponnani Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 Parliamentary elections, Mr. Vijayan said the CPI(M) did not need to mix provincial politics with more significant humanitarian issues.
