Followers of Islamist leader Abdul Nasser Madani, presently under detention in a Bangalore prison as an accused in the 2008 bombings case, is beginning to lose hopes of getting help from Kerala’s Congress and the ruling UDF it leads on the issue of his bail amidst rumours that his party, the PDP, is planning to end its operations as a political outfit.
Since his arrest as 31st accused in the Bangalore bombings case over three years back, Madani’s followers have been hoping to get help from both the UDF and the CPI (M)-led lDF for securing his release but their expectations are now on the wane especially after Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s statement last week that his Government did not want to intervene in the matter.
Chandy had gone to Bangalore last week promising the PDP to take up the issue of release of Madani on bail with his Karnataka counterpart K Siddharamaiah but after their meeting, the Kerala Chief Minister suddenly changed his position by saying that his Government did not want to interfere in matters related to another State.
Though PDP leaders do not want to openly express disappointment with the Congress and its Government in Kerala, a large number of workers and middle-level leaders believe that there is no point in expecting help from those quarters particularly as the Prosecution under Karnataka’s Congress-led regime has toughened its approach towards Madani’s bid for bail.
“It need not be difficult for the Kerala’s Congress to take up the matter seriously with the Karnataka Government if it really wants to do it. It seems that the leaders here do not want to do that as they have some problem in being seen as appeasing the minorities,” said a Kochi-based PDP functionary.
However, the official line of the PDP is that it still believes that the political parties in Kerala would help “ailing Madani” on “humanitarian” grounds. “(There is) no need to attach much importance to Chandy’s so-called new stand. What else can he say as head of the GovernmentIJ let us wait and see,” said Kochi-based PDP leader Muhammad Rajeeb.
The pro-Madani sentiment in the Congress and the UDF Government with respect to his bail issue began to change in August after Karnataka Home Minister KJ George said his Government could not interfere with the case which was being looked into by the court and the Prosecution taking a tougher stand on the bail plea than the one adopted during the time of the BJP rule.
Madani was arrested by the Karnataka Police on August 17, 2010 from Anvarssery, his operational headquarters at Sasthamkotta in Kerala’s Kollam district as 31st accused in the 2008 Bangalore bombings case. Since then he has been lodged at the Parappana Agrahara Prison outside Bangalore city.
Meanwhile, reports said on Monday that the PDP leadership was thinking of winding up the activities of the party in the context of the long detention of Madani in the Karnataka prison. A newspaper reported that Madani, PDP’s chairman, himself had suggested the constitution of a new party by putting his children at the helm of its affairs.
It is said that Madani’s detention had thrown the activities of the party off the tracks and had led to intense factionalism. Madani was prompted to think of a new organisation as PDP’s political relevance had declined in the changed social scenario, reports said. The effort was perhaps to transform the PDP into a more acceptable party under the leadership of his children.