AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

        The Left parties would always like themselves to be seen as being super secularists, no matter what the ground reality and their opportunistic alliances contrarily The acquittal of Abdul Nazar Madhani in the Coimbatore blasts case, and Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan's welcoming of the same is a good time to focus the attention on him, his rise and the Left's wholesome chicanery all through. Madhani, the accused number 14 in the Coimbatore serial blasts case, was a rabble-rousing fundamentalist, who used his skills of demagoguery to make an impact on impressionistic Muslim youth in Kerala. Madhani, who has been freed of the all the five charges against him due to lack of evidence, soon extended his spell to Tamilnadu and Karnataka too. Madhani also floated the provocative Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS), and quickly gave it a political extension by launching the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the 90s.

        To start with, the Left parties saw Madhani for what he was — a religious fundamentalist and a terrorist. In the 20 May, 2001 issue of the CPI-M's mouthpiece People's Democracy, this is what the party had to say: 'The Congress record in Kerala was no better insofar as fighting the forces of communalism is concerned. Here, as is well known, the Congress is in the leadership of the United Democratic Front that includes the Muslim League as well as several caste-based parties. But the Congress did not remain content with this only. It went to the extent of having an open understanding with the BJP as well as with the Muslim fundamentalist People's Democratic Party (PDP). As reported by the media, some of the Congressmen even went to the Coimbatore jail to seek support from the PDP leader Madhani who is lodged there on the charge of his involvement in the Coimbatore bomb blasts.' Later in November 2001, the same magazine called Madhani, 'the leader of a terrorist organisation'. The Left consistently called him a terrorist as long as he was supporting the Congress-led UDF.

        So how has Madhani now grown to the level of being called a 'respectable secularist' by the Left? The 2006 Kerala elections changed everything. Looking for support in the Malabar region, a duplicitous the LDF moved in and got Madhani, who holds enormous clout with the Muslims in Kerala, to announce his support for the Left in the elections. The LDF romped home convincingly, and every political pundit agreed that Madhani's words of support had indeed tilted the scales decisively. Little wonder then that Achuthanandan is now moved to say (upon Madhani's release) that 'he (Madhani) would carry out his political functions sticking to the principles of secularism and democracy'. The whole story has only one logical thread: Anybody who opposes the Left is communal, and would be even called a terrorist. But the moment the support shifts to the Left the same terrorist becomes a stickler for secularism. Shame on you, comrades. And henceforth just spare us your laborious homilies on secularism and nation-building.