CPI(M) members free to practise religion: Kodiyeri

Kozhikode district conference of party begins

Categorically stating that his party did not frown upon believers, Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said that the party members are free to practise their religion and visit places of worship.

Inaugurating the three-day district conference of the CPI(M) here on Monday, Mr. Balakrishnan said that members could be non-believers as well. “The CPI(M) is a party that provides membership to believers. The constitution of the CPI(M) did not anywhere say it disapproved of believers,” he said. Without naming the Samastha Kerala Sunni Yuvajana Sangham leader Abdussamad Pookkottur who stated that no Muslim can be a communist, Mr. Balakrishnan said that a deliberate attempt was made to wean away the Muslim community which was now attracted to the CPI(M). This attitude was similar to the ideology of the Jamaat-e-Islami, he said.

He said the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) was trying to launch a second liberation struggle to hide its embarrassment over Samastha Kerala Jamiyathul Ulema abandoning the party on the Waqf Board appointments. That party was bringing together several Muslim organisations to foment a communal divide in the State. “But they are mistaken as the situation now is different,” he said, adding that the IUML had better rescind the move.