If it was felt the CPM was still conflicted about Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fazal, nothing could have been way off the mark.

The two college students, charged under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for alleged Maoist links, have been thrown out of the party. They have been disciplined even before the two could give their version to the party.

“Both have been removed from the party for working with Maoists even while being CPM members. No party member has such a right,” CPM state secretary Kodiyeri told reporters after the State Committee meeting held here on Sunday. Kodiyeri had no doubts that they were Maoists. “They even raised the 'Maoists zindabad' slogan. Isn't that proof enough,” Kodiyeri asked. Many say this demonising of Alan and Thaha is also an attempt to justify the LDF Government's use of UAPA, a draconian Act of which the CPM was the fiercest critic.

The decision was taken by the Pantheerankavu area committee and promptly ratified by the Kozhikode district committee a month ago. “The Kozhikode district secretary himself reported the action to the State Committee,” Kodiyeri said.

This is intriguing as it was only less than a month ago, on January 23, that Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan virtually contradicted Chief Minister Pinarayi and said it was premature to link the two to Maoists. Mohanan had even said that Alan and Thaha were still CPM members. “If at all they had made some mistakes, we will correct them. They are still CPM members and the party has not taken any action against them. The party has not gone back from its commitment to protect them,” Mohanan said.

Mohanan's protective gesture was not taken kindly by the party. Central Committee member M Govindan quickly asserted that the boys were indeed Maoists. “How deep their connections were, the party will probe,” he said. It is still not clear whether such a probe had been carried out.

There is a reason why the CPM is so unforgiving towards Alan and Shuhaib. These students are seen as products of what the CPM considers a dangerous alliance between Muslim extremism and Maoism that was turning politics in Malabar upside down. There is a thinking within the Malabar unit of the CPM that Alan and Thaha were fired up by the propaganda of Jamaat-e-Islami, an outfit the CPM has branded “extremist”.

Quite tellingly, it was Kozhikode district secretary Mohanan himself who had first said that extreme Muslim outfits were nourishing Maoism in Kerala. Kannur strongman P Jayarajan, too, had repeatedly said that Alan and Thaha had both Maoist and extremist connections.

One of the internal charges against Alan and Thaha was that they attempted to form a group called Students Cultural Centre in cooperation with Jamaat-e-Islami's students wing at the Palayadu University campus. It is said that the SFI had thwarted the attempt.

This could be why the LDF government was unmoved even when the National Investigation Agency under union home minister Amit Shah took over the Alan-Thaha case. However, fearing that the opposition could transform the NIA intervention into an emotive issue, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had written to the Centre to return the Alan-Thaha case back to the Kerala police.

