Exposed: How outlawed Popular Front of India is bypassing the ban in Karnataka

By Md Hizbullah: Despite being outlawed in September last year, the Popular Front of India (PFI) seems to have found ways to circumvent the ban and continue its operations in Karnataka, an India Today investigation has found.

The Union Home Ministry banned PFI and eight of its associates for five years over threats to security and terror links.

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Six months later, India Today's investigation discovered that PFI cadre have apparently regrouped physically and online, many of them assimilating into the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), widely thought to be the political wing of the banned outfit.

REGROUPING PHYSICALLY, ONLINE

Chand Pasha, the PFI's Chikkamagaluru district president for three years before the measure came into force, told India Today's investigative reporter that he is mobilising cadre on the ground, issuing video diktats on WhatsApp to impose his will on Muslim voters in the area.

"We are the PFI people. We have our members and cadre and our well-wishers. We hold regular discussions on who all should be supported (in the elections). We inquire about winning candidates. We are dead against the BJP. We want to defeat the BJP," he admitted.

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The PFI network, Pasha confessed, continues to work in close coordination with the help of presidents of local shrines and messaging groups.

"When we issue a single video on WhatsApp, it's viewed by thousands of people. We don't have to meet up all those members in person," he explained, adding, "There are 30-50 mosques in this area. Ten to 15 presidents of those mosques have created 10-15 groups each. If we have to raise our point or raise our objections, we issue them on WhatsApp."

USING SDPI AS A PROXY

Pasha admitted that around 70 to 80 per cent of the PFI’s membership in Chikkamagaluru district is still intact. He insisted that the outlawed group's cadre have switched to the SDPI.

"Some of the PFI members are in the SDPI. And some of the SDPI members are in the PFI. Everyone isn’t here (in the PFI) because it's a Muslim-only organisation whereas the SDPI also has Hindus and Dalits."

In Karnataka’s coastal district of Dakshina Kannada, Asif, the SDPI’s in charge of Moodbidri Assembly constituency, corroborated Pasha's claims that the PFI cadre have merged seamlessly into the party.

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"Let me tell you off the record that the PFI cadre is now the SDPI cadre," he told India Today's reporter.

The PFI cadre, he continued, are not identifiable. "They work in the background. Arrests can't happen. They don't have evidence. If, for instance, I belong to the PFI, there isn't any document to establish it. There was no such system for issuing IDs in the PFI."

Asif also disclosed that the SDPI, with PFI activists on board, receives financial support from the Gulf region.

"We get the maximum support from the Gulf. They (our financiers) would tell us to collect their remittances from the homes (of their contacts) here," Asif said.

With a strong presence in Karnataka and Kerala, the PFI was said to have multiple wings - women, students and political. Security experts caution that the banned group must be prevented from gaining a political foothold through the back door.

"The PFI was rightfully banned by the government for its anti-India agenda. But now it shouldn't be allowed to operate under a different name/banner," said Dr SP Vaid, a former DGP of Jammu and Kashmir.

"It is imperative that the election commission, judiciary, government and law enforcement agencies foil the attempt of PFI to gain political power in the country. The security agencies must provide evidence to the election commission about the SDPI," Vaid added.

Registered as a political party since 2010, the SDPI has publically distanced itself from the PFI.

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In the wake of the ban on the Popular Front of India, the Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, told India Today in October that there was no evidence to support claims that the SDPI and the PFI were linked together.

"We are aware of action against the PFI. The SDPI has submitted all necessary documents. Till now, there is no link established between the PFI and the SDPI which necessitates action," the CEC said.

SDPI INSIDERS ACCEPT PFI LINKS

But India Today caught SDPI leaders on camera admitting that the party has absorbed activists from the outlawed outfit. When probed, Muneeb Bengre, an SDPI corporator in the Mangaluru City Corporation, accepted that PFI activists are now working under his party's umbrella.

"They have come in. It's no longer the PFI after the ban. They have come to the SDPI. They are our supporters, our members. They are all working," he said, adding, "That cadre are not working with PFI identity, but it’s working for our SDPI."

Bengre claimed that both the organisations were as strong as the RSS because of their combined strength.

An hour drive up north to Udupi, Nazir, another SDPI office bearer, also acknowledged that the PFI base is as intact as before.

"It's not shaken. Cadres aren't something that will go away. Young men who don't have training shake. But we are fully trained from the beginning," he said.

When asked about how they have been placed -- as the PFI or the SDPI, Nazir said SDPI. According to Nazir, his party’s core group consisted of PFI loyalists.

"I don't know if they (the PFI cadre) are attacking leaders (of other right wing groups), but there’s always a fear – the PFI is highly feared," he boasted.

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