Former Vice-President Hamid Ansari is in the eye of a storm, after he attended an event in Kerala on Saturday, that was organised by Popular Front of India (PFI).
PFI is under the scanner for its alleged terror links and the Centre is even mulling banning the outfit, based on a report filed by the National Investigating Agency (NIA).
On Saturday, Hamid Ansari was in Kozhikode to attend an event organised by National Women’s Front (NWF), the women’s wing of PFI. According to reports, the international conference, ‘The role of women in making a humane society,’ was organised jointly by New Delhi-based Institute of Objective Studies and NWF.
Inaugurating the conference, Hamid Ansari said that Islam respects the individuality of women and called for gender equality. Taking part in the event, Hamid Ansari also handed over a memento to PFI India Chairman E Aboobacker.
Hamid Ansari attending an event organised by PFI has now stirred a hornet's nest. The BJP in the state has demanded an apology from the former Vice President.
“A person who was the Vice President of the country for 10 years should not have taken part in a programme organised by an outfit which is under the scanner of the National Investigation Agency,” BJP district president P Raghunath said in a release, reported The Hindu.
More voices have now come forward to criticize him for attending the event. Taking to Twitter, Shobha Karandlaje, a BJP MP from Karnataka, condemned Hamid Ansari taking part in an event by "radical outfit PFI."
Shocked to know former VP Hamid Ansari attended a event organised by a radical outfit PFI.I outrightly condemn this.PFI involved in killings pic.twitter.com/5irvoSFYZ9
— Shobha Karandlaje (@ShobhaBJP) September 24, 2017
CT Ravi, BJP MLA and party General Secretary from Karnataka also slammed Ansari, calling him a ‘Mullah’.
Hamid Ansari is a classic case of a person spitting in the plate he ate food. Indians will never forgive Sonia for elevating a Mullah as VP.
— C.T.Ravi (@CTRavi_BJP) September 23, 2017
While some users on social media demanded the government of India to stop giving pension benefits to Hamid Ansari, some others demanded that he leave the country.
Since Hamid Ansari encourages Jihadi killers of PFI, Govt of India should stop his benefits & pensions, tax payer don't want to pay for him.
— Ishkaran S. Bhandari (@Ish_Bhandari) September 24, 2017
Hamid Ansari shld be asked to leave India .He is a shame to the nation. https://t.co/TXnvfKxHUB
— RAVI KUMAR (Yuvraj) (@RaviBerro) September 24, 2017
And This Shameless Khangressi Hamid Ansari Openly Hobnobbing With Jihadis Was Holding Chair of Vice President of India,Shame on @INCIndia pic.twitter.com/HO1HGxzrvw
— Jay® (@Saffron_Rocks) September 24, 2017
Can Hamid Ansari explain to nation his love for PFI whose activists chopped off hand of T J Joseph in 2010? He is genuinely ultra communal.
— Prof Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) September 24, 2017
Why the anger?
Currently active in at least 23 states across the country, with Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu being their most active chapters, PFI has been repeatedly accused of having terror links.
Several PFI members have been chargesheeted for their alleged involvement in violence cases, following which, they have been slapped with Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Notably, the PFI has been accused of involvement in four cases: Chopping off of a professor’s hand in Idukki, the murder of RSS leader Rudresh in Bengaluru, conducting a training camp in Kannur from where country-made bombs and swords were allegedly seized, and the Islamic State Al-Hindi Module case in which the accused from Kerala and Tamil Nadu planned to hit targets in south India.
In 2015, a Kerala court had found 13 PFI activists guilty of chopping off the hand of Professor TJ Joseph, five years after a group of attackers chopped off his right hand for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed in a question paper he set.
According to a recent report by The Times of India, the NIA filed a dossier to the central government, after which, the government is now mulling banning the outfit.