National Development Front

The National Development Front (NDF) was Muslim organisation set up in Kerala. It was back supporting religiously effected minorities people in the country lead front and the party was established in India in 1994.

History

Inspired by pan-Islamic movements across the country after 1992, the NDF gained a strong foothold in the Malabar region following the banning of the Organization of Islamic Servants (ISS).{{cite web|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jul/28isi.htm |title=Rediff.com |access-date=11 May 2012}} The Kerala Police investigation found that the National Development Front (NDF) was another incarnation of the ISS.[http://www.idsa.in/publications/stratcomments/VinodKumar220806.htm IDSA Strategic Comments:: Is Kerala Emerging as India's New Terror Hub? ::] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070712222907/http://www.idsa.in/publications/stratcomments/VinodKumar220806.htm |date=12 July 2007 }} The NDF actively promoted the claim of "representing the rights of Muslims" to win the confidence of Muslims.{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/21/stories/2005122112160300.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001061854/http://www.hindu.com/2005/12/21/stories/2005122112160300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 October 2007 |title=NDF Minorities Campaign |date=21 December 2005 |work=The Hindu |access-date=11 May 2012}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20060427015151/http://www.humanrightskerala.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 CHRO Website]

The National Development Front has 19 Supreme Council members. Among them is Prof P. Koya who was also one of the founding members of the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI, the affiliate of Indian Mujahideen).{{cite news| url=http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/america/2007/07/a_kerala_professor_praises_ter.html | newspaper=The Washington Post | title=A Professor Praises Terrorism | access-date=19 May 2010}}

In 1997, the NDF organized the National Human Rights Conference in Kozhikode. Based on deliberations and understanding, a new organization was formed called the Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (CHRO).[https://web.archive.org/web/20070428171704/http://www.humanrightskerala.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=4 NDF in ties with Confederation of Human Rights Organisations]

The NDF worked closely with Thejas journalist Mukundan C Menon and journalists affiliated with the CHRO by closely connecting with Human Rights Watch International.[https://archive.today/20070928003655/http://www.humanrightskerala.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4341&Itemid=5 HRW Report]

File:Kerala parade 1.jpg

The NDF organized parades with the slogan "Be the Sentinels of Islam"{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/16/stories/2005081609430400.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070427130211/http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/16/stories/2005081609430400.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 April 2007 |title=''Be the sentinel of Islam |date=16 August 2005 |work=The Hindu |access-date=11 May 2012}} in major cities of Kerala in 2004, 2005,{{cite web|url=http://ndfindia.com/content/view/111/56/ |title=Islamic Parade 2005 |publisher=Ndfindia.com |access-date=11 May 2012}} and in 2006.{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/16/stories/2005081609430400.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070427130211/http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/16/stories/2005081609430400.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 April 2007 |title=NDF Islamic Parade Report from |date=16 August 2005 |work=The Hindu |access-date=11 May 2012}} The parade became one of the regular activities on the Indian Independence Day.{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/16/stories/2005081610450300.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909092606/http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/16/stories/2005081610450300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 September 2006 |title=Indian Independence Day Activities in Kerala |date=16 August 2005 |work=The Hindu |access-date=11 May 2012}}

The NDF is in alliance with the Popular Front of India and collaborated in the Empower India conference held in Bangalore in February 2007.{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/18/stories/2007021820880100.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220172047/http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/18/stories/2007021820880100.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 February 2007 |title=Create broad-based alliance of all oppressed sections |date=18 February 2007 |work=The Hindu |access-date=11 May 2012}}

In 2012, the NDF organized various communal movements, demonstrations, rallies and other strikes against police brutality and government misconduct,{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/07/stories/2006110702230300.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001050610/http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/07/stories/2006110702230300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=1 October 2007 |title=Widespread protests against death sentence |date=7 November 2006 |work=The Hindu |access-date=11 May 2012}} claiming the right to work more in government employment.{{cite web|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/02/10/stories/2004021001860500.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202182929/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/02/10/stories/2004021001860500.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2 December 2007 |title=NDF to take out black march |publisher=Hinduonnet.com |access-date=11 May 2012}} Reservations and allowances were implemented for Muslims.

In 2021, the NDF was also involved in the hijab controversy in Kerala and Tamil Nadu by providing shelter, food and drink for those involved.{{cite web|url=http://www.hindu.com/2004/12/29/stories/2004122915140300.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041231123237/http://www.hindu.com/2004/12/29/stories/2004122915140300.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 December 2004 |title=Relief activities in progress |date=29 December 2004 |work=The Hindu |access-date=11 May 2012}}

Criticism

The NDF was accused of being a communal outfit and members of the organisation were implicated in violent incidents such as the 2002 2nd Marad massacre.R. Krishnakumar, Marad shocks, Frontline (magazine), Volume 23, Issue 20, 7–20 October 2006 accessed at {{cite web |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2320/stories/20061020003810600.htm |title=Marad shocks |access-date=2007-02-09 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090112093108/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2320/stories/20061020003810600.htm |archive-date=12 January 2009}} 29 December 2006 The Thomas P Joseph Commission report found that "activists of IUML and NDF, a Muslim outfit, were actively involved in the massacre".{{Cite web|agency=PTI|date=Sep 27, 2006|title=Marad massacre: Kerala govt for CBI probe |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/marad-massacre-kerala-govt-for-cbi-probe/articleshow/2032620.cms|access-date=2023-01-31|website=The Times of India|language=en}} The state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, said that NDF was involved in the Marad massacre and referred to them as a "terrorist outfit" that executed a "planned mass murder".[http://pd.cpim.org/2003/0511/05112003_kerala_marad.htm UDF Slept As Marad Burned], by Aboo Backer, CPI(M) weekly NDF was blamed for inciting violence against moderate Muslims in Kerala who are in opposition to liberal and reformist Islamic movements and individuals.{{cite journal |url=http://www.sabrang.com/cc/comold/march99/cover.htm |journal=Communalism Combat |title=The enemy within |date=March 1999 |access-date=21 March 2012}} The "involvement of fundamentalists and terrorists" was behind the incident.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) put forward allegations that NDF maintains links with Pakistan's ISI.{{cite news| url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/20/stories/2005052011570400.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050525214102/http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/20/stories/2005052011570400.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=25 May 2005 | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu | title=BJP seeks inquiry into NDF-ISI links | date=20 May 2005}} The BJP sought an inquiry into NDF-ISI links.The Hindu – 20 May 2005 The Indian National Congress raised doubts about the true nature of their activities. On 31 October 2006, the Congress launched a campaign against terrorism in Malappuram district in Kerala, simultaneously taking on parties and organisations such as the IUML, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the NDF, and the People's Democratic Party (PDP).{{Cite web|date=2007-09-30|title=Congress' anti-terrorism campaign in Malappuram|website=The Hindu |url=http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/01/stories/2006110101850400.htm|access-date=2023-01-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184747/http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/01/stories/2006110101850400.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007|url-status=dead }}

= Foreign connection =

Ms Neera Rawat IPS, Senior Superintendent of Police, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, deposed before the Marad Judicial Inquiry Commission of Justice Thomas P. Joseph. Her tenure as Kozhikode City Police Commissioner was from 22 March 1997 to 16 May 1999. She told the Inquiry Commission that the police had prepared confidential and authentic reports that ISI and Iran have funded the NDF.{{cite news| url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/14/stories/2005051402780700.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001065040/http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/14/stories/2005051402780700.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=1 October 2007 | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu | title=ISI, Iran funded NDF: Rawat | date=14 May 2005}}

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Special Branch, Ernakulam, A.V. George, also deposed before the Marad inquiry panel on 29 October 2005, and stated that a key witness in an illegal arms possession case had given a statement to the police during its investigation that the NDF had been receiving crores of rupees from foreign countries to carry out its training programmes. ACP George quoted the testimony made by arrested NDF cadres that the NDF had been sending people to Pakistan for the last several years.{{cite news| url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/30/stories/2005103005910600.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080108111120/http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/30/stories/2005103005910600.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=8 January 2008 | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu | title=NDF received aid from foreign countries | date=30 October 2005}}

== Kottakkal Police station attack ==

Police accused that NDF activists attacked the Kottakkal police station at Kottakkal in Malappuram district in the early hours of 23 March 2007 following the arrest of two senior leaders of the front. The attack was repulsed by the police and 27 activists were taken into custody.{{cite news| url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/23/stories/2007032314290400.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080212110839/http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/23/stories/2007032314290400.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=12 February 2008 | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu | title=NDF activists attack Kottakkal police station; 27 arrested | date=23 March 2007}}

== Modus operandi ==

Frontline magazine quoted a senior police officer as saying that the NDF had successfully exploited the sense of insecurity created in the Muslim community by events that followed the Babri Masjid demolition to find supporters in northern Kerala, irrespective of their political or other allegiances. The report adds: "Initially, no NDF member used to acknowledge openly that he was an NDF member. They would always claim that they were members of other organisations. The truth may be that members of several organisations were members of the NDF also. Now the NDF has several wings and is making a major effort to project itself as a socio-cultural organisation of Muslims."{{cite web|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1505/15051230.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021124134028/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1505/15051230.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=24 November 2002 |title=Hinduonnet.com |publisher=Hinduonnet.com |access-date=11 May 2012}}

== Pakistan MP visit row ==

Pakistan MP Mohammed Thaha Mohammed's visit to Thalassery on 29 April 2007 sparked a controversy, with activists of the BJP and other Sangh Parivar groups staging a march to the hotel where Mohammed was staying. They claimed that leaders of a few Muslim organisations, including the NDF, were seen visiting the MP.{{cite news| url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/29/stories/2007042900971100.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070501085614/http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/29/stories/2007042900971100.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=1 May 2007 | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu | title=Pakistan MP's visit to Kerala sparks row | date=29 April 2007}}

== Additional views ==

University of Haifa political scientist David Bukay lists the NDF as a "fundamentalist and subversive group".{{cite book

| last = Bukay

| first = David

| author-link = David Bukay

| title = Muhammad's Monsters: A Comprehensive Guide to Radical Islam for Western Audiences P177-178

| year = 2004

| publisher = New Leaf Press

| isbn = 0-89221-576-3

| quote = Evidence of these processes [preparation for large-scale acts of terror] is mounting throughout India, and is reflected in the number of fundamentalist and subversive groups that exist, and the geographical spread of their activities. The most prominent of these include the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the All India Milli Council, All India Jihad Committee, The People's Democratic Party, Muslim United Front, Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazagham, National Development Front, Students Islamic Movement of India, among others

| url-access = registration

| url = https://archive.org/details/muhammadsmonster0000unse

}} After the 11 July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings, the NDF, along with other Islamist organisations, was closely monitored by authorities for terrorist links.{{cite news| url=http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/18/stories/2006071803630300.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080210140552/http://www.hindu.com/2006/07/18/stories/2006071803630300.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=10 February 2008 | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu | title=Police on alert after Mumbai blasts | date=18 July 2006}} The organisation attracted numerous Islamic Fundamentalists to their ranks, and are compared to several more well-known militant Islamist groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, and others.{{cite book

| last = Ahamkaari

| author-link = Ahamkaari

| title = Will I Be Killed?: (for Writing the Following Contents. ..) P331

| year = 2003

| publisher = iUniverse

| isbn = 0-595-27591-5

| chapter = 4

| quote =Kerala is witnessing more and more recruits into this extremist Islamic ideology". When the names are the alarming "Lashkar-e-Toiba" and "Hizbul Mujahiddeen" in the "uneducated North", it is very humorously garbed as "National Development Front" in the south"

}}

== Implementation of religious code ==

The NDF is alleged to be involved in efforts to push the Islamic Sharia code among the moderate and cosmopolitan Muslim society in Kerala, an act viewed by moderate Muslims and secularists as Talibanization. NDF was accused of targeting liberals in the community – those who do not strictly follow Islamic laws like abstaining from liquor, fasting during Ramadan, and wearing the makhna or purdah.{{cite web|url=http://www.insaf.net/pipermail/sacw_insaf.net/1999/000008.html |title=[sacw] The Muslim Rightwing in Kerala |publisher=Insaf.net |access-date=11 May 2012}} The NDF has been linked to multiple murder cases, including that of a Muslim fakir known by the alias Siddhan for indulging in what they saw as "un-Islamic spiritualism" and of a Muslim man from Punalur for working for a leftist organisation.{{Cite web|date=2005-03-16|author=Rajeev P I|title=Kerala's extremist outfit of many faces|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/keralas-extremist-outfit-of-many-faces/|access-date=2023-01-31|website=The Indian Express|language=en}}

References

External links

[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Cities/Thirupuram/Probe_into_Marad_riots/articleshow/2033452.cms Probe into Marad riots, Times of India, 28 September 2006]
Rajeev Pi, In Kerala bastion, CPM fights hardline Muslim violence, Sunday Express, 20 August 2006 accessed at [http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/289.html Indianexpress.com] 29 December 2006
R. Krishnakumar, The Maudany factor, Frontline (magazine), Volume 19, Issue 22, 26 October – 8 November 2002 accessed at {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20050329132153/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1922/stories/20021108002603800.htm Hinduonnet.com]}}, 29 December 2006
R. Krishnakumar, Concern in Kerala, Frontline (magazine), Vol.15, No.05, 7–20 March 1998 accessed at {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20021124134028/http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1505/15051230.htm Hinduonnet.com]}}, 29 December 2006
[http://www.indianexpress.com/sunday/story/289.html In Kerala bastion, CPM fights hardline Muslim violence] – The Indian Express
[http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/ajaisahni/NATIV2002.htm Islamic Extremism and Subversion in South Asia] – Ajai Sahni
[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Cities/Thirupuram/Probe_into_Marad_riots/articleshow/2033452.cms Probe into Marad riots, Times of India, 28 September 2006]
Court Rejects Anti-National Charge Against islamic leader [http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Religion-communalism/2002/anti-national.htm PUCL.org]
Empower India Conference 15–17 February