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National Development front, abbreviated as NDF, is an organisaiton in Kerala, India established in 1993, focusing on socio-enonomical issues of minorities giving a focus to Kerala Muslims, Dalits and Other Backward Classes in Kerala. Its slogan is Swathantryam - Neethi - Surakrsha which means Freedom, Justice and Security. NDF work for the total empowerment of the oppressed communities and it seek to build alliances with all sectors of the society for achiving this goal. In 1997 it stood behind the formation of the Confederation of Human Rights Organizations, founded in Kozhikode.

NDF claims to be a human rights organization, and claims to seek to build alliances with non-Muslim sections. Its slogan is Swathantryam - Neethi - Surakrsha which means Freedom, Justice and Security. In 1997 it stood behind the formation of the Confederation of Human Rights Organizations, founded in Kozhikode. However, they stand accused by judicial inquiries, the Central Bureau of Investigation and various political parties in India of fomenting Islamic Fundamentalism in Kerala and being involved in the Marad massacre, accusations which they deny in their public releases.

Declared ideologies and positions

The NDF, in their website, claims to be a "Human Rights Organization" that is actively working for the emancipation of minorities in Kerala such as Dalits, Tribals and Muslims. According to them, their main focus is to ensure the rights of all the citizens with a focus on "oppressed and minorities" (sic).

They further try to propitiate their activities by alleging that the main cause for the formation of the NDF organization was the "threat and alienation that theBabri Mosque demolition caused among Kerala's Muslims". They also claim to "give guidance to all such outfits and fight for social justice"

NDF claims to work very closely with all Muslim organizations and co-operate in all the movements for the empowerment of Muslims.

NDF has recently decided to bring what they claim are "like minded organizations" together for expanding their activities "for the oppressed and the minorities to the rest of the country"

Criticism

The NDF is largely seen as a communal outfit and members of the organization have been implicated in violent incidents like the 2002 Marad massacre.The Central Bureau of Investigation report found that "activists of IUML and NDF, a Muslim outfit, were actively involved in the massacre" NDF has also been blamed for inciting violence against moderate Muslims in Kerala, in opposition to liberal and reformist Islamic movements and individuals. and that "involvement of fundamentalists and terrorists" was behind the incident.

Two members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were murdered by the NDF in early 2004 and there have been many reports of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers and Hindus in Kerala being hacked to death by NDF death squads.

The BJP have put forward allegations that NDF maintains links with Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence. The Indian National Congress (who are politically opposed to the BJP) has also raised doubts about the true nature of their activities. On October 31, 2006, the Congress launched a campaign against terrorism in Malappuram district in Kerala, labeling NDF as an organization that promotes Islamic terrorism.. In addition, the State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, has said that NDF was involved in the Marad massacre and referred to them as a "terrorist outfit" that executed a "planned mass murder".

The NDF has been heavily criticized for recruiting the largely moderate and progressive Kerala Muslims into extremist ideologies. The organization, while superficially a "Human Rights Group", has attracted numerous Islamic Fundamentalists to their ranks, and, as such, stand compared to several more well-known militant Islamist groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizbul Mujahideen and others. Haifa University political scientist David Bukay lists the NDF as a "fundamentalist and subversive group"

NDF Response to Criticisms

The National Development Front publicly denies involvement in the Marad massacre. They allege that the perpetrators arrested for the acts were not members of their organization and, as is normal in the discourse of Islamist propaganda in India, blamed the entire incident on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and other "Fascist Hindus", evoking anti-Hindu canards in a blurb on their website. In addition, they made veiled threats implying that there will "be trouble" if "innocent Muslims were persecuted by the police".They also declared that they "Welcomed the CBI investigation" into the Marad riots.

In response to general criticisms about thir organization, the NDF has vaguely criticized "the media" and "the authorities" for their portrayal of the organization as a militant outfit. An NDF spokesperson said:

"Mediapersons have been misled by Intelligence authorities to believe that the NDF was a militant organisation. They had said the same thing about Congress during the freedom struggle"

NDF Freedom Parade

NDF has conducted Freedom Parades with the sloganBe the sentinel of freedom. in major cities of Kerala in 2004, 2005 , and in 2006. The parades have become one of the major activities on the Indian Independence Day .

See also

• Popular Front of India
• Thejas
• Confederation of Human Rights Organizations
• NDF Minorities Campign
• CHRO Website

References

1. NDF in ties with Confederation of Human Rights Organisations
2. NDF in ties with Confederation of Human Rights Organisations
3. NDF - What is it?
4. NDF for Social Justice
5. NDF and Muslim Personal law board
6. NDF to widen organizational set-up
7. R. Krishnakumar, Marad shocks, Frontline (magazine), Volume 23, Issue 20, Oct. 07-20, 2006 accessed at Dec 29, 2006
8. ^ Marad massacre: Kerala govt for CBI probe Times of India - September 27, 2006
9. Communalism Combat March 1999
10. Marad: Pinarayi pinpoints NDF involvement The Hindu - July 17, 2004
11. The Bharatiya Janata Party seeks inquiry into NDF-ISI links The Hindu - May 20, 2005
12. Congress' anti-terrorism campaign in Malappuram,The Hindu
13. UDF Slept As Marad Burned, by Aboo Backer, CPI(M) weekly
14. Ahamkaari (2003). "4". Will I Be Killed?: (for Writing the Following Contents...) P331. iUniverse. ISBN 0595275915. 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"
15. Bukay, David (2004). Muhammad's Monsters: A Comprehensive Guide to Radical Islam for Western Audiences P177-178. New Leaf Press. ISBN 0892215763. Evidence of these processes 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
16. ^ NDF denies accusition in Marad massacre
17. ^ NDF welcomes CBI Probe
19. Be the sentinel of freedom
20. Freedom Parade 2005
21. NDF Freedom Parade Report from The Hindu
22. Major Indian Independence Day Activities In Kerala

External links

• Probe into Marad riots, Times of India, Sept 28, 2006
• Rajeev Pi, In Kerala bastion, CPM fights hardline Muslim violence, Sunday Express, August 20, 2006 accessed at Dec 29, 2006
• Communal tension high in Kerala, BBC, Dec 10, 2001
• R. Krishnakumar, The Maudany factor, Frontline (magazine), Volume 19, Issue 22, Oct 26 - Nov 08, 2002 accessed at Dec 29, 2006
• R. Krishnakumar, Concern in Kerala, Frontline (magazine), Vol.15, No.05, March 7-20, 1998 accessed at Dec 29, 2006
• In Kerala bastion, CPM fights hardline Muslim violence - The Indian Express
• Islamic Extremism and Subversion in South Asia - Ajai Sahni

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• Kerala
• Organizations based in India
• Islamism