The dilemma being faced by the Muslims is not a mathematics problem that has some definite answers but a social menace created by the political leadership over time. There might be many solutions to this issue, short term, and long term, but abusing and calling names is incorrect.
Rehan Ansari
MUMBAI—About a week ago, Samajwadi Party MLA in Maharashtra Abu Asim Azmi created a controversy by saying that those asking for Muslim leadership should go to Pakistan. Azmi is a native of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh but is settled down in Maharashtra.
His comments provoked an aggressive response from the AIMIM led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
The party announced to contest more than 100 seats in UP assembly polls scheduled in February 2022.
AIMIM, according to media reports, is likely to contest most of the Muslim-dominated seats in Western Uttar Pradesh.
However, there is a fear in political circles, particularly parties opposed to BJP, that the fielding of candidates by AIMIM is likely to polarize the Hindu voters in favour of BJP.
Azmi’s utterances, similar to those made by BJP leaders and other fundamental Hindutva groups, seem to have been made after a lot of calculation, intended to win the support of both the Hindus and Muslims for his party in the forthcoming elections.
With AIMIM having projected itself as a champion of the Muslim cause, Muslim voters seem to be in a dilemma about whom to vote? And the situation this time is more complex than in the 2017 assembly polls in the state. AIMIM and Abu Asim Azmi are likely to use more oversized polarizing slogans as the election date draws nearer.
But most of the ‘secular’ political parties agree with what Abu Asim Azmi has said. They say that a political party raising the slogan of Muslims every time will divide the elections into religious lines and drive a majority of the Hindus towards BJP, thus harming the parties challenging the BJP in the polls. They ask why AIMIM contest 100 seats or more in UP when it has less than ten seats in Telangana.
But AIMIM taunts the so-called ‘secular’ parties by saying that communal riots were the order of the day during the rule of the ‘secular’ parties in which Muslims suffered the most. AIMIM leaders say that Muslim representation in UP has gone down since 1947 despite the ‘secular’ parties making tall claims about being sympathizers of the Muslims. AIMIM is also attacking the ‘secular parties’ by saying that Muslims’ educational, social and economic status has also gone down during their rule and produce the Sachar Committee report as evidence. AIMIM argues that communal forces in the country grew and strengthened under the watch of the ‘secular’ parties.
It’s true that a Muslim-only party is not workable in our country but equally valid is that secular parties, historically, were of little help to Muslims despite India being a democratic nation and governed by a Constitution.
It’s an irony while Sikhs can have their party like Akali Dal and can form political alliances with the BJP or any other party, but a question is raised when a Muslim heads a party or a Muslim-led political party seeks alliance with a non-BJP political party. No ‘secular’ party has had a Muslim as its president ever since Independence.
When a senior Congress leader suggested his party high command not go for a non-Sikh chief minister in Punjab, it was not called a communal statement. All hell would have broken loose if such a suggestion was made regarding Muslims in any state.
Delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies, that is, division of electoral areas and reservation of assembly and parliamentary seats, is done in such a way to ensure that a Muslim cannot win elections. Such an unfair delimitation exercise is the primary reason for declining Muslim representation in state assemblies and Parliament. Even after this, a little-known Muslim won Lok Sabha elections on an AIMIM ticket from Aurangabad by defeating a three-time Shiv Sena MP. Why can’t ‘secular’ parties field Muslims from constituencies with a sizeable Muslim population and ensure their victory?
Also, the ministerial berths are allotted not on merit and experience but based on the religion and caste of the MLAs and MPs. All the parties do this. BJP always gave the Ministry of Minority Affairs to Muslims like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Or Shahnawaz Hussain as if they couldn’t handle any other portfolio.
AIMIM may divide the votes but will bring pressure on ‘secular’ parties to give more representation to Muslims in their parties, increasing Muslims’ weight in the country’s politics.
So, the dilemma being faced by the Muslims is not a mathematics problem that has some definite answers but a social menace created by the political leadership over time. There might be many solutions to this issue, short term, and long term, but abusing and calling names is incorrect.
(The opinion is the author’s own, and it does not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of India Tomorrow.)
*Rehan Ansari is a social and political activist based in Mumbai.
