CPI says IUML lacks credibility

PALAKKAD: Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary Pannian Raveendran said the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has lost its credibility in the state. Addressing a press conference here, he said by getting the fifth Cabinet berth using political pressure, the IUML had ‘upset the political and community equilibrium in society and politics.' This pressure tactics of the party had created problems in the Congress, which was heading the United Democratic Front government. “The Panakkad family, which provides spiritual leadership to the IUML, is respected for its sober and secular political stand. But League leaders have made the present head of the Thangal family, Panakkad Hyderali Shihab Thangal, a party to the Calicut university land scam,” he said. The recent actions of the League had resulted in that party losing its credibility and secular image in politics, Raveendran said. He said that though community organisations such as the Nair Service Society (NSS) and the SNDP had a political space, they should not directly interfere in politics as that would vitiate secular atmosphere of the State.