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"CPM lights Bush-fire for Muslim votes in Kerala (Communists and Muslims ally against Bush in India)"
Daily Pioneer ^

Posted on 04/20/2006 2:14:18 PM PDT by The Lion Roars

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In Muslim-dominated areas across Kerala, especially those where the Indian Union Muslim League till now has been the undisputed political force and its shimmering green festoons the only political colour, young and old voters stare in amazement at red banners emblazoned with the CPI(M)'s sickle, hammer and star symbol and the slogan "Lal Salam".

What adds to their bewilderment is that Lal Salam is printed not in Malayalam but in Arabic. In some places, these banners have been put up, to the untrained eye, provocatively and audaciously near mosques and madarsas.

But these banners neither symbolise Communist provocation nor Marxist audacity. They are a public proclamation of the CPI(M)'s decision to actively woo the Muslim vote by striking an entente with fundamentalist organisations like Abdul Nasser Madani's People's Democratic Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Compared to the extremist views propagated by these outfits, the IUML's policies and programmes come across as mellow and tolerably moderate. And by pandering to these views, the CPI(M) has managed to debilitate the IUML in several places, reducing Muslim support for the Congress-led UDF, according to opinion polls, to nearly half that of 2001.

This has understandably caused consternation and concern among UDF leaders, especially those of the Congress."