IUML to play down Aryadan issue

By Girish Menon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV. 24. After a round of sparring with the Congress MLA, Mr. Aryadan Mohammed, over his remarks about its supremo, Mr. Panakkad Syeed Mohammedali Sihab Thangal, the IUML has decided to play down the current row and make an attempt to contain it to the local level.

Mr. Aryadan Mohammed had sought to give a new turn to his running battle with the IUML leadership which took off this time over the open support given to a NRI businessman, Mr. P.V. Abdul Wahab, in the labour dispute in his residential public school in Nilambur. At the level of a labour dispute, Mr. Aryadan Mohammed made it clear at a press conference that as a trade union leader, he would never support any anti-labour action taken by managements and accused a section of the IUML leadership of misleading Mr. Thangal in furtherance of their narrow business interests.

At a political level, Mr. Aryadan Mohammed subtly tried to shift focus of the running controversy with the League into the realms of a public debate on whether Mr. Thangal, revered as a spiritual leader by large sections of the Muslim Community in Malabar and elsewhere, was above criticism as the State president of the IUML and whether it was correct to mix religion and politics.

The responses of the senior Congress leaders such as Mr. K. Karunakaran and Mr. A.K. Antony have been lukewarm, if not cold. They have indicated in as many words their disinclination to overplay the issue, which had the potential of disrupting their respective equations with the IUML and Mr. Thangal. Mr. Antony termed the entire Nilambur issue as a local issue, while Mr. Karunakaran Merely attributed it to the traditional fight Mr. Aryadan Mohammed had been involved with the IUML leadership in Malappuram.

These leaders would find it hard to disown Mr. Aryadan Mohammed in his fight with the IUML because it relates to the Congress party's national position on secularism, which is totally against mixing religion with politics. It is the very plank on which the Congress' opposition (or for that matter the IUML's too) to the BJP is built on.

Besides, the issue was proving to be a disrupting element in his cozy relationship with the IUML. It is in this context that Mr. Antony, who was initially worried about the tone and tenor of the controversy, took the conscious decision to underplay Mr. Aryadan Mohammed's statements. As far as the Nilambur MLA is concerned, he believes that his positions would help him shore up his anti- IUML base in the district. The lukewarm attitude of the Chief Minister and other Congress leaders has not been comforting for a leader like him, who has reaped his political harvest through prominent anti-IUML postures. This is why Mr. Aryadan Mohammed has reacted the way he did, though in the process he took care to reiterate that he had indeed not criticised Mr. Thangal.

The IUML's initial moves were aimed at strengthening its hold in Malappuram district and expanding its penumbra of influence to areas like Nilambur which has been traditionally outside its fold. But with the controversy taking a new turn, the IUML leadership woke up to the danger of getting involved in a debate that would be more damaging to its interests.

The party leaders have been passionately protecting its supremo from any kind of controversy which might expose him to petty politicking. Mr. Thangal's contributions towards keeping the Muslim community on the path of moderation cannot not be underscored. The spiritual position and political office he holds have worked well in strengthening the IUML's base, besides keeping fundamentalist elements under check. It apparently does not want to drag Mr. Thangal into the kind of controversy that Mr. Arayadan Mohammed is raring to. In addition, the party dislikes the kind of debate Mr. Aryadan Mohammed wants because it fears it might weaken its hard political positions against the BJP.

In this context, the IUML leadership, after careful deliberations, decided that none of its senior leaders should react to Mr. Arayadan Mohammed's statements and try at limiting the issue to the local level.

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Section  : Southern States
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