FINALLY, the Government has moved and raided offices and premises of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and arrested over a hundred persons across the country. It is obvious that National Investigating Agency (NIA) will continue with action for some more time. Eventually, the Government may impose a ban on the PFI -- and thereby empower itself to take action against every person and every outfit that may have whatever connection with the organisation. Whatever steps the Government is taking against the PFI, however, are belated beyond expectation. This action should have come at least a year earlier. That would have proved to be a great step in India’s war against extremism and terrorism, since the PFI has been known to indulge in religious extremism and terror-funding.

Even as the raids were being conducted in as many as 15 States, Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Mr. Ajit Doval convened a meeting of senior officials to discuss the situation and plan further steps. This means that the Government is very serious about carrying forward the action against the PFI. The nationwide arrests are likely to continue as extended action is sure to continue in an investigation which the NIA described as the largest ever by the agency.

Though for record, the PFI always touts itself as an organisation wedded to the cause of creating a neo-social order, the security and law enforcement agencies have been fully aware of its real nature -- which the raids indicated. With Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah in control of the massive operation, it is sure that in the next some time, the Government will be able to push the PFI to its finish -- which is essential in larger national interest.

It is actually amazing to realise what sort of a wide network, overt and covert, operates in the country to keep terrorism alive. The common people cannot even imagine how the different outfits operate. There are only a handful that operate above the surface. Underneath, there is a whole world of underground activity to keep terrorism fully operational. These different outfits have their own mandates to which they adhere and follow a larger plan of action. While some of them are engaged in creating questionable literature to instigate people to act against the grain of India, others are engaged in enticing young people to turn to terrorism or extremism.

The PFI is known to have been acting as a nationwide coordinating agency for different outfits with sly and suspect agendas. In Kerala, the PFI has mustered much strength organisationally and financially. That was the reason that when he was Congress Chief Minister of Kerala, Mr. Oomen Chandy had recommended a ban on the PFI -- which Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh chose to ignore. This means clearly that the Government had always had strong reservations against the PFI, but did not pick up courage to take any tough action against it.

In inner circles of the Government, the question of taking tough action against the PFI has been coming up for discussion for years on end, though there was no concerted action against the organisation with a suspect persona. Possibly, the Government wanted to wait for the PFI to come in full operational mode and then expose its resources and connections -- and ban it. Perhaps, that stage is on the anvil now. In fact, when the Government got to know of a plan to convert into an Islamic Republic by 2047, it should have acted tough against the PFI. Yet, the Government waited -- giving many observers to form confusing opinions. Now all that doubting will end because of the current action against the PFI. Details tumbling out of the raids seem to point to the agenda of radical Islam.

This is certainly a cause of worry. For, such an agenda will only distort India’s social and secular discourse all the more. For, in some States, the PFI was known to have joined the electoral activity without openly putting up its own candidates. All these details make a good case for a total ban on the Popular Front of India. The Government takes its own time to act in that direction. But if the ban comes in the next some time, it would be only a natural extension of the action that is going on now.