Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] appears to have stepped unwarily into a political minefield by wading into the hijab dispute that has of late become a flash point in the highly emotive social struggle to protect Constitutionally guaranteed minority rights in the country.
Singed by intense criticism from Muslim social organisations, opinion leaders and Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition, the CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan hastily disavowed CPI(M) State committee member K. Anil Kumar’s theory that the Communist party’s progressive influence emboldened Muslim women in north Kerala to abandon the hijab.
Mr. Govindan told reporters in Kannur that Mr. Kumar’s statement at a rationalist meeting in Thiruvananthapuram did not hew to the CPI(M)‘s stated line. The CPI(M) respected the right of individuals to wear religious garments or sport symbols of faith in adherence to their beliefs.
He pointed out that the CPI(M) had joined secular and democratic forces in criticising the Karnataka High Court decision (in 2022) banning students from wearing religious garments in class. “Nobody can insist on what another individual should wear. It is the inalienable right of persons to choose what they should wear, eat or believe in. Such choices are not a matter to be arbitrated in courts,” Mr. Govindan said.
Mr. Govindan attempted to salvage the situation after the CPI(M) faced criticism from within the Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Left independent legislator K.T. Jaleel rejected Mr. Kumar’s “innuendo that Hijab was a regressive symbol” in a Facebook post.
Other LDF allies reportedly took a bleak view of the “politically inopportune and myopic” statement after a galaxy of influential Muslim leaders and social organisations termed the position Islamophobic.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan said CPI(M)‘s line on the Hijab echoed a Sangh Parivar sentiment. “BJP merely went a step ahead and banned it in Karnataka,” he said.
BJP State president K. Surendran said CPI(M) was bending backwards to accommodate minority interests while it rode roughshod over the religious sentiments of the majority community.
The controversy arose when the CPI(M) had invested heavily in building bridges with the traditionally pro-UDF Muslim community, a crucial voting block in Kerala. It had also sought to undercut Congress’s sizeable influence with the Muslim community in Kerala by terming the party’s line “soft Hindutva”.
