MC Explains | How the Centre banned the Popular Front of India

Ministry of Home Affairs (Photo: ANI)

The Ministry of Home Affairs banned the Popular Front of India (PFI) for five years on September 28, after a week-long crackdown on its leaders and office bearers across the country.

The Centre also banned organisations associated with the outfit – National Women’s Front, Campus Front of India, National Confederation of Human Rights Organization, Rehab India Foundation, All India Imams Council, Junior Front, Empower India Foundation, and Rehab Foundation, Kerala.

The ban comes a day after the second nationwide crackdown on the PFI, with police teams across seven states conducting raids and detaining or arresting more than 270 people with alleged links to the radical outfit.

In Pics: As NIA cracks down on Popular Front of India, here's a look at the organisation's history

The home ministry said in its notification that the PFI and its associates, affiliates, and fronts have indulged in unlawful activities that are prejudicial to India’s integrity, sovereignty, and security, have the potential of disturbing public peace and communal harmony and support militancy in the country.

In the recent past, the PFI’s name has cropped up after almost every communal flare-up or busting of terror modules. The Directorate of Enforcement, which has been probing the group under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since 2018, suspects a financial link between the PFI and violent protests in Uttar Pradesh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The PFI is often accused of radicalising Muslim youngsters and maintaining a relationship with anti-national groups. Calls for a ban on the group have been voiced by critics.

Banning process

The home ministry declared the PFI an unlawful association under Section 3 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, which states that if the Central government is of opinion that any association is, or has become, an unlawful association, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare it to be unlawful.

“Every such notification shall specify the grounds on which it is issued and such other particulars as the Central Government may consider necessary: Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall require the Central Government to disclose any fact which it considers to be against the public interest to disclose,” the section says.

Also, to declare an organisation unlawful, the Centre also needs a recommendation from a state. The ministry said in the notification that the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat have recommended banning the PFI. All three states are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Cadres of the PFI have been involved in several terrorist acts and murder of several persons, the ministry said in the notification.

“There had been a number of instances of international linkages of PFI with Global Terrorist Groups and some activists of the PFI have joined Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and participated in terror activities in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan,” the ministry said.

Supreme Court lawyer Mahmood Paracha told Moneycontrol, “Since this action has been taken by the Centre, it is challengeable at the tribunal of the Delhi High Court. As per Section 15 of UAPA, there has to be a valid ground to ban an organisation.”

Paracha called the Centre’s action biased.

“This move is biased and it is not justified. The publicity material of PFI clearly shows they follow the Constitution. On the other side, no action has been taken against organisations and Dharm Sansads that call for violence against Muslims. There is tangible evidence against them. The rule has not been applied to them and shows the Centre’s intention clearly,” Parcha said.

In February 2019, the home ministry had banned Jammu and Kashmir-based group Jamaat-i-Islami (JeI), as an unlawful association under Section 3 of the UAPA. The government said the “JeI was indulging in activities which were prejudicial to internal security and public order, and have the potential of disrupting the unity and integrity of the country.”