Popular Front of India (PFI)

1. About the Popular front in India

• The Popular Front of India (PFI) which came into existence as a non-profit organization to fight for the rights of minorities, Dalits, and marginalized communities is now on the verge of getting banned for allegedly indulging in actions detrimental to the overall national security.
• The PFI was created in 2007 through the merger of three Muslim organizations in southern India, the National Democratic Front in Kerala, the Karnataka Forum for Dignity, and the Manitha Neethi Pasarai in Tamil Nadu.
• The PFI, which emerged in the aftermath of the ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), has projected itself as an organization that fights for the rights of minorities, Dalits, and marginalized communities. 
• It has frequently targeted the alleged anti-people policies of the political parties in Karnataka, even as these mainstream parties have accused one another of being in cahoots with the PFI to gather the support of Muslims at the time of elections.
• The PFI has never contested elections. But It has been involved in carrying out social and Islamic religious work among Muslims along the lines of the work done by right-wing groups. 
• The PFI does not maintain records of its members, and it has been difficult for law enforcement agencies to pin crimes on the organization after making arrests.
• In 2009, a political outfit named the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) evolved out of the PFI, to take up the political issues of Muslims, Dalits, and other marginalized communities.
• The SDPI’s stated goal is “advancement and uniform development of all the citizenry including Muslims, Dalits, Backward Classes and Adivasis”, and to “share power fairly among all the citizens”. The PFI is a key provider of ground workers for the SDPI’s political activities.

2. Footprint of PFI

• The PFI has had the most visible presence in Kerala, where it has been repeatedly accused of murder, rioting, intimidation, and having links with terrorist organizations.
• Back in 2012, the Kerala government had informed the High Court that PFI was “nothing but a resurrection of the banned outfit Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in another form”. The government affidavit said PFI activists were involved in 27 cases of murder and associated motives were communal.
• Two years later, the Kerala government told the High Court in another affidavit that the PFI had a clandestine agenda of “Islamisation of society by promoting conversion, communalisation of issues with a view to the benefit of Islam, recruitment, and maintenance of a branded committed indoctrinated Muslim youth for undertaking actions including selective elimination of persons, who in their perception are enemies of Islam”.
• The affidavit reiterated that workers of the PFI and its predecessor National Development Front (NDF) were involved in 27 cases of communally motivated murders, 86 cases of attempt to murder, and 106 cases of a communal nature in the state.
• In April this year, the Kerala BJP announced the launch of a campaign against “growing instances” of “religious terrorism” in the state, with the PFI’s alleged involvement. “In the last six years, 24 BJP-RSS workers have been killed in Kerala, seven of them by the Popular Front of India,”.

3. ALLEGED TERROR ACTIVITIES

• The law enforcement agencies found that since its inception, the PFI was allegedly involved in inciting violence, possessing arms, and propagating extremism. 
• The outfit's violent activities came into the limelight when its members chopped off the right hand of a professor of Malayalam  for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed in an internal question paper that professor had set.
• PFI activists in connection with the stabbing of other political worker
• The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in an internal report in 2018 stated that the members of the outfit pursue a strategy aimed at enforcing the Taliban brand of Islam, communalising Indian polity, and maintaining volunteers for attacks.
• In Karnataka's hijab row  the state government stated that the agitation against the hijab was part of a "larger conspiracy" orchestrated by the PFI to create social unrest.
• In Phulwari Sharif terror module case, Bihar Police seized a seven-page document on an alleged plan to “establish the rule of Islam in India by 2047” from PFI members.
• In investigations into the Udaipur killing of Kanhaiya Lal for supporting Nupur Sharma, the NIA stated that the accused had links with the PFI.
• In Assam, local police have established a link between the PFI and the Bangladesh-based Islamic terror group, Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), during an investigation pertaining to the recent crackdown on the ABT module.

4. Crackdown on FPI

• Seeing alleged violent activities of PFI, the Ministry of Home Affairs held several rounds of meetings to decide whether the outfit should be banned or not. 
• The ministry also reviewed all the cases where members of the PFI were involved. 
• Enforcement Directorate started cracking down on the PFI. The financial probing agency booked PFI under criminal charges of money laundering for its alleged links with terror activities and funding.