Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary MV Govindan said everyone has the right to wear what they want. He was reacting to the controversial statement made by CPI(M) state committee member Anil Kumar, who claimed that it was because of the party’s influence that girls in Malappuram said no to headscarves.
Rejecting Anil Kumar’s statement, MV Govindan said, “No one should make suggestions or critical remarks over wearing an attire. Anil Kumar’s statement is not the party stand. It shouldn't have been made,” he said.
Anil Kumar had made the controversial statement on Sunday, October 1, while talking about the progressive stand taken by CPI(M) at the Litmus 23 meet, an atheist conference organised by some rationalist groups in Nishagandhi auditorium in Thiruvananthapuram. Litmus 23 has in the past been criticised for its anti-communist and anti-Islamist stand. Anil Kumar was criticising this ideology of the organisers.
He began his speech by stating that the CPI(M) believes that a secular society in poverty is not progressive. He went on to say that a society has to be poverty-ridden to be progressive, and secularism comes next. He also strongly criticised the anti-Communist stand by the Litmus.
“See the young girls from Malappuram, who say no when someone tries to put a scarf on their head. This is because of the Communist Party in Kerala and progress in education,” he said.
This statement triggered a huge controversy with various Muslim organisations slamming Anil Kumar. The Kerala Muslim Jamat, the orgnisation close to the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala, said that the CPI(M) should reject the statement and correct Anil Kumar publicly. They alleged that the statement was an insult for the girls in Malappuram.
The Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, the biggest Muslim organisation in the State, alleged that the statement by Anil Kumar shows the double standard of the CPI(M). PMA Salam, state general secretary of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) called CPI(M) an anti-religious party. He said the party is trying to attack the faith of Muslims. He said the CPI(M) took the same stand during the Sabarimala and Waqf cases.