As Karnataka’s schools remain troubled with the dress-code controversy termed by the media as the ‘Hijab’ row, a hitherto obscure organisation, the Campus Front of India has drawn some serious attention to itself.
The CFI has turned heads nationally as it is being accused of orchestrating the Hijab controversy and radicalising Muslim school girls into placing the ‘Hijab’ before the ‘Kitaab’. Not only this, CFI is linked with the Popular Front of India (PFI), and is being termed as a ‘student wing’ of the radical Islamic organisation. PFI itself has roots in banned terrorist organisation SIMI or the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, and has its stronghold in Kerala. PFI has also been charge-sheeted in the Delhi riots case.
The CFI’s activities are catching speed and have spread to other states as well with Karnataka being the latest witness. It has also found impetus in Delhi where students have protested in solidarity with the pro-Hijab protesters in Karnataka. CFI has earlier in February 2020, also protested against ‘Islamophobia’ in Delhi with chants such as ‘Modi-Shah Murdabad’ and ‘Delhi Police Murdabad’.
Of late, the CFI seems to have taken a special interest in school students and comes with a clear agenda of infiltrating school campuses with religious politics and radical Islamic ideas. CFI has been campaigning against the Supreme Court’s Ram Mandir verdict in schools and in the current Hijab controversy, it has said that it will welcome the Court judgment only if it is in its favour, otherwise, the battle against the government will continue.
Also Read: Straight with Shivani: Hijab Not Gender-neutral Element of Religion, It is Imposed on Women
Hijab row: Not an organic uproar
There is nothing spontaneous about the way the Hijab row emerged and took centerstage in Karnataka’s Udupi. Students of class 11 and 12 who followed the uniform regulations for months, decided sometime in December to start their campaign in Hijabs and Burqas, and mobilise as many Muslim girls under the ‘Hijab’ banner. The involvement of the CFI was later unearthed and has since raised many eyebrows.
It is pertinent to note that CFI spokespersons in Udupi have gone off the radar and are not responding to queries. News18 reached out to CFI president Athaullah Punjalakatte, the President of Karnataka wing of CFI, but no response was received at the time of publishing this story.
The Campus Front of India is being accused of having stage-managed the protest which threatens communal harmony in and out of educational institutions of Karnataka. It all started after some Muslim students in Udupi joined an ABVP protest on the 30th of October last year. ABVP or the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is the student wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The ABVP protest which was endorsed by the Muslim girls was against an alleged case of rape, but Muslim organisations were disturbed by the association of the girls with ABVP.
According to reports, the parents of the girls soon came out and claimed that the girls were forced to join the protest. They even reached out to the school management over this. CFI is known to have been behind this push and made inroads as Muslim students, later to be involved in the Hijab protest, started engaging in Twitter campaigns allegedly pushed by CFI including tweets with the hashtag #NationalEducationDay highlighting the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. These Twitter accounts claim to be “Udupi Hijab ban victims” in their bios. One such account tweeted a poster naming the Campus Front of India.
‘The girls have been trained by CFI’
According to reports, Yashpal Suvarna, Vice President of the School Development Management Committee (SDMC) in Udupi alleged that the girls wearing Hijab were trained by the Campus Front of India after which they started the protest against and misbehaved with teachers. He said that the girls wore uniforms inside the classrooms earlier but started demanding entry in Hijab since November 2021.
Also Read: Udupi Hijab Controversy: Should a Muslim Woman Necessarily Wear a Hijab, Asks Zakia Soman
CFI’s stand on the Ram Mandir verdict
CFI has carried out Twitter campaigns rejecting the 2019 Ram Mandir verdict by the Supreme Court which allowed for the demolition of Babri Masjid and the construction of a Lord Ram temple. “Demolition of Babri Topple of Secularism” was one such Twitter campaign. In December 2021, CFI also distributed ‘I am Babri’ badges to students across the state of Kerala and delivered talks on the same to school children.
Most recently, the CFI has spoken out against the Karnataka High court’s interim order prohibiting students from attending classes in any religious attires. It called the decision “upsetting”. Athaullah Punjalakatte, the President of Karnataka wing of CFI said, “Hijab is religious right of Muslims, the hijab and saffron shawl cannot be compared. As part of a joint strategy of the ABVP and BJP to create controversy against the hijab, students start wearing saffron shawls and spreading communal hatred through violence across the state.”
The Popular Front of India and its dalliance with Islamic terror
The PFI is an Islamist front with roots in the banned terror outfit SIMI which functioned as a ‘student union’ only to bring to the fore the dreaded terrorist group ‘Indian Mujahideen’. Lower-tier members of SIMI were involved with the IM which is notorious for carrying out various terror attacks in India such as the Jaipur blasts of 2008 and the Ahmedabad serial blasts which led to the death of about 50 people. In 2006, SIMI was also found to be involved with Lashkar-e-Taiba in perpetrating the Mumbai train blasts which killed over 200 people.
The SIMI was a radical Islamic group, represented by students, which committed itself to Sharia and wanted to establish an Islamic caliphate in India. SIMI has remained banned since 2001 but the ideas of this terror group have travelled along with their members forming groups that differ only in name, not in their agenda or their intent to stir communal tensions and unleash terror on India. This is why despite SIMI being banned, its ideas have not only migrated to the PFI whose stronghold is largely in Kerala, but are also using PFI as a vehicle to make a comeback in their place of origin, Uttar Pradesh, which will lead to no good.
PFI is under the scanner by the Enforcement Directorate and the National Investigative Agency. The state police of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka are all probing PFI as well for a series of crimes from brutal killings of activists to inciting communal riots, including the Northeast Delhi riots.
In Kerala, PFI has expanded aggressively. Its members have allegedly killed 42-year-old activist Ramalingam. A professor also had his hands chopped off allegedly by PFI goons and several political killings of RSS activists have been alleged against the radical front. In fact, the government is facing repeated calls for a ban on PFI. Such is the parent organistaion of CFI which is currently sprawling across the corridors of Indian schools and colleges.
IM, SIMI, PFI and CFI may differ in their tactics but at the end of the day, they are all cut from the same cloth, which is why CFI’s involvement in schools is an alarming state of affairs especially as the group is mobilising not just in the southern states but also in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. For all we know, CFI could be the next SIMI, radicalising young students on campuses and taking a lethal shape in the years to come.
Read all the Latest Opinions here
Comments
0 comment