National Development Front

The National Development Front (NDF) is a militant^[1] and extremist^[2] Muslim organisation in Kerala. It was established in India in 1993 and has stated that its objective is to "focus on socio-enonomical issues of minorities giving a focus to Kerala Muslims, Dalits and Other Backward Classes in Kerala".^[3][4][5]

NDF announced a plan to adhere to the dawa (missionary work) of aggressively propagating Islam among other communities. P. Koya, NDF supreme council member, wrote an article in Thejas, the organization's magazine, magazine, that "many Muslim organisations hold the view that dawa work is fundamental to Muslims. But the same organisations pay scant attention to the work".^[6]
Their 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 being affiliated with Pakistan-backed Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) related activities in Kerala.^[7][8] The organisation has been categorised as a militant group,^[9] and was among the five hardline groups that were under scrutiny of the Union home ministry in 2006 for "fanning fanaticism".^[10]

History

Inspired by pan-Islamic reactionary movements across the country after 1992, the NDF gained a firm footing in the Malabar region after the proscription of the Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS) organization.^[11] Kerala police alleged that the National Development Front (NDF) is another re-incarnation of the ISS.^[12]

The National Development Front has 19 Supreme Council members. Among them is Prof P. Koya who was also one of the founding members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).^[13]

NDF and human rights movements

In 1997 NDF conducted the National Human Rights Conference in Kozhikode. Many human rights activists and NDF activists participated. Based on discussions and understanding, a new organisation was formed called Confederation of Human Rights Organisation (CHRO).^[8]

NDF aggressively propagandized their claim to "represent the rights of minorities" up to and including launching a "minorities campaign" to gain publicity.^[14][15]

NDF worked closely with journalists associated with Thejas Mukundan C Menon and the CHRO, who is closely tied to Human Rights Watch International.^[16] The organization decided to expand its activities "for the oppressed and the minorities to the rest of the country".^[17] They conducted different movements, demonstrations, rallies and other democratic strikes to:^[18][19]

• Defend human rights atrocities from police, military, government- and non-governmental agencies.^[20]
• Fight for special recruitments for jobs and educational posts where they were denied seats according to the governmental rules.^[19]
• Implement reservation and allowances for the backward communities (OBC) to bring them up to the level of mainstream society.
• Enforce the rights of OBC minorities by forcing the government and its agencies to help the downtrodden in Indian society.

Relief activities

Along with other organizations, NDF was actively involved in helping tsunami victims of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. They rehabilitated many tsunami victims by providing necessities and shelter. The main focus was to obtain the basic necessities of drinking water and food for the victims.^[21]

Empower India Conference and Popular Front

NDF is in coalition with Popular Front of India and co-operated in the Empower India Conference, which was held at Bangalore in February 2007.^[22] 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 together on one platform. The conference was intended to motivate the underprivileged and marginalized sections like dalits, backward classes and minority communities to work for human rights and social justice.^[23][24]

Criticism

The NDF was accused of being a communal outfit and members of the organization were implicated in violent incidents such as the 2002 Marad massacre.^[25] The Thomas P Joseph Commission report found that "activists of IUML and NDF, a Muslim outfit, were actively involved in the massacre".^[26] The State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, said that NDF was involved in the Marad massacre and referred to them as a "terrorist outfit" that executed a "planned mass murder".^[27] NDF was blamed for inciting violence against moderate Muslims in Kerala who are in opposition to liberal and reformist Islamic movements and individuals.^[28] The "involvement of fundamentalists and terrorists" was behind the incident.^[26][29]

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) put forward allegations that NDF maintains links with Pakistan's ISI.^[30] The Bharatiya Janata Party sought an inquiry into NDF-ISI links.^[31] The Indian National Congress (who are politically opposed to the BJP) raised doubts about the true nature of their activities. On 31 October 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 NDF, and the People's Democratic Party (PDP).^[32]

Foreign connection

Ms Neera Rawat IPS, Senior Superintendent of Police, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, was deposed before the Marad Judicial Inquiry Commission of Justice Thomas P. Joseph. Her tenure as Kozhikode City Police Commissioner was from 22 March 1997 to 16 May 1999. She told the Inquiry Commission that the police had prepared confidential and authentic reports that ISI and Iran were fund sponsors of the NDF.^[7]

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Special Branch, Ernakulam, A.V. George, who was deposed before the Marad inquiry panel on 29/10/2005, said that a key witness in an illegal arms possession case had given a statement to the police during its investigation that the NDF had been receiving crores of rupees from foreign countries to carry out its training programmes. ACP George quoted the testimony made by arrested NDF cadres that the NDF had been sending people to Pakistan for the last several years.^[33]

Kottakkal Police station attack

Police accused that NDF activists attacked the Kottakkal police station at Kottakkal in Malappuram district in the early hours of 23 March 2007 following the arrest of two senior leaders of the front. The attack was repulsed by the Police and 27 activists were placed in custody.^[34]

Modus operandi

Frontline magazine quoted a senior police officer who said that the NDF had successfully exploited the sense of insecurity created in the Muslim community by 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."^[35]

Pakistan MPs visit row

Pakistan MP Mohammed Thaha Mohammed's visit to Thalassery on 29 April 2007 sparked a controversy, with activists of the BJP and other Sangh Parivar groups staging a march to the hotel where Mohammed was staying. They claimed that leaders of a few Muslim orgainisations, including the NDF, were seen visiting the MP. Mohammed Thaha Mohammed represents Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in Pakistan's parliament.^[36]

Additional views

University of Haifa political scientist David Bukay lists the NDF as a "fundamentalist and subversive group".^[37] After the 11 July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings, the NDF, along with other Islamist organizations, was closely monitored by authorities for terrorist links.^[38] The organization attracted numerous Islamic Fundamentalists to their ranks, and are compared to several more well-known militant Islamist groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, and others.^[39]

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". NDF was accused of targeting liberals in the community – those who do not strictly follow Islamic laws like abstaining from liquor, fasting during Ramadan, and wearing the makhna or purdah.^[40] Fakir Uppappa or Siddhan was killed in June for indulging in "un-Islamic spiritualism".^[41]

A Muslim was murdered in Punalur for binding with Leftist organization [DYFI]. Media reports about the killing of CPI(M)'s Ashraf in Punalur in Kollam district points towards this.^[41]

Love Jihad

NDF supported the Love Jihad organisation, which was intended to convert girls who fall in love with Muslim men.^{[42] [43]}

NDF's response to criticisms

The NDF denied involvement in the Marad massacre. It alleged that the perpetrators arrested for the acts were not members of their organization^[44] and blamed the incident on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other "Fascist Hindus".^[45] They made veiled threats implying that there would "be trouble" if "innocent Muslims were persecuted by the police".^[44] They declared that they "welcomed the CBI investigation" into the Marad riots.^[45]

The NDF criticized the media and the authorities for their portrayal of the organization as a militant outfit. An NDF spokesperson said:^[46]

"Media persons 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."

NDF Parade

NDF Freedom Parade 2006

The NDF conducted Parades with the slogan "Be the sentinel of freedom"^[47] in major cities of Kerala in 2004, 2005,^[48] and in 2006.^[49] The parades became one of the regular activities on the Indian Independence Day.^[50]

See also

• Confederation of Human Rights Organizations
• Students Islamic Organisation of India
• Popular Front of India
• Thejas
• Love Jihad

References

1. ^ "Communal tension high in Kerala". BBC News. 10 December 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1702270.stm. 
2. ^ Kerala to probe NDF’s ‘links’ with ISI The Indian Express, 17 May 2005
3. ^ The Jihad Within, Rediff.com.
4. ^ The Muslim Rightwing in Kerala M G Radhakrishnan India Today, 15 February 1999
5. ^ Amar C. Bakshi (20 July 2007). "A Professor Praises Terrorism". The Washington Post. http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/america/2007/07/a_kerala_professor_praises_ter.html. Retrieved February 16, 2011. 
6. ^ 'Major Muslim outfits not good missionaries' – Newindpress.com
7. ^ ^{a b} "ISI, Iran funded NDF: Rawat". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 14 May 2005. http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/14/stories/2005051402780700.htm. 
8. ^ ^{a b} NDF in ties with Confederation of Human Rights Organisations
9. ^ Building new bases, Frontline (magazine),Volume 24 – Issue 24 :: Dec. 08-21, 2007
10. ^ Thakur, Pradeep (19 June 2006). "Govt keeping an eye on five hardline groups". The Times Of India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1657352.cms. 
11. ^ Rediff.com
12. ^ IDSA Strategic Comments:: Is Kerala Emerging as India's New Terror Hub? ::
13. ^ "A Professor Praises Terrorism". The Washington Post. http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/america/2007/07/a_kerala_professor_praises_ter.html. Retrieved 19 May 2010. 
14. ^ NDF Minorities Campaign
15. ^ CHRO Website
16. ^ HRW Report
17. ^ NDF to widen organizational set-up
18. ^ NDF for Social Justice
19. ^ ^{a b} NDF to take out black march
20. ^ Widespread protests against death sentence
21. ^ Relief activities in progress – The Hindu
22. ^ Create broad-based alliance of all oppressed sections
23. ^ PFI's 'Empower India Conf.' in Bangalore from Feb. 15 – 17, 2007
24. ^ Main Events of Empower India Conference
25. ^ R. Krishnakumar, Marad shocks, Frontline (magazine), Volume 23, Issue 20, Oct. 07-20, 2006 accessed at [1] 29 December 2006
26. ^ ^{a b} Marad massacre: Kerala govt for CBI probe Times of India – 27 September 2006
27. ^ UDF Slept As Marad Burned, by Aboo Backer, CPI(M) weekly
28. ^ Communalism Combat March 1999
29. ^ Communalism Combat March 1999
30. ^ "BJP seeks inquiry into NDF-ISI links". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 20 May 2005. http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/20/stories/2005052011570400.htm. 
31. ^ The Hindu – 20 May 2005
32. ^ Congress' anti-terrorism campaign in Malappuram,The Hindu
33. ^ "NDF received aid from foreign countries". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 30 October 2005. http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/30/stories/2005103005910600.htm. 
34. ^ "NDF activists attack Kottakkal police station; 27 arrested". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 23 March 2007. http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/23/stories/2007032314290400.htm. 
35. ^ Hinduonnet.com
36. ^ "Pakistan MP's visit to Kerala sparks row". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 29 April 2007. http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/29/stories/2007042900971100.htm. 
37. ^ Bukay, David (2004). Muhammad's Monsters: A Comprehensive Guide to Radical Islam for Western Audiences P177-178. 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" 
38. ^ "Police on alert after Mumbai blasts". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 18 July 2006. http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/18/stories/2006071803630300.htm. 
39. ^ Ahamkaari (2003). "4". Will I Be Killed?: (for Writing the Following Contents. ..) P331. 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"" 
40. ^ [sacw] The Muslim Rightwing in Kerala
41. ^ ^{a b} Kerala's extremist outfit of many faces^{[dead link]}
42. ^ Love Jihad’ in Kerala'The Deccan Herald
43. ^ love jihad movement in State' The Hindu
44. ^ ^{a b} NDF denies accusation in Marad massacre
45. ^ ^{a b} NDF welcomed CBI Probe
46. ^ News from The Hindu
47. ^ Be the sentinel of freedom
48. ^ Freedom Parade 2005
49. ^ NDF Freedom Parade Report from The Hindu
50. ^ Indian Independence Day Activities In Kerala

External links

• Probe into Marad riots, Times of India, September 28, 2006
• Rajeev Pi, In Kerala bastion, CPM fights hardline Muslim violence, Sunday Express, 20 August 2006 accessed at Indianexpress.com 29 December 2006
• Communal tension high in Kerala, BBC, December 10, 2001
• R. Krishnakumar, The Maudany factor, Frontline (magazine), Volume 19, Issue 22, 26 October – 8 November 2002 accessed at Hinduonnet.com, 29 December 2006
• R. Krishnakumar, Concern in Kerala, Frontline (magazine), Vol.15, No.05, 7–20 March 1998 accessed at Hinduonnet.com, 29 December 2006
• In Kerala bastion, CPM fights hardline Muslim violence – The Indian Express
• Islamic Extremism and Subversion in South Asia – Ajai Sahni
• Popular Front Of India Website
• CHRO Website
• Probe into Marad riots, Times of India, September 28, 2006
• Court Rejects Anti-National Charge Against human rights leader PUCL.org
• Empower India Conference 15–17 February