Gujarat Elections-2022: Who Will Be Responsible For Muslim-Free Legislative Assembly

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Photo for representation only. Courtesy: The Tribune.

Iqbal Ahmad Mirza*

AHMEDABAD—India’s present situation is quite grim. Politics has gained dominance in every aspect of our society. It has occupied every area of our life. Be it financial, social, educational, or religious, we have witnessed since Corona pandemic days everything being decided by politics. Whether the places of worship like temples, mosques, churches, or Gurudwara will open or remain shut was also decided by politics. One will be able to offer one’s prayer like Puja or Namaz was also in the hand of politics.


In the democratic set up “of the people, for the people and by the people” was turned into “of the government, for the government, and by the government.” We witnessed an extremely anti-people form of government.


That is not limited to the dreaded Corona pandemic time. The recent mishap of Morbi in Gujarat again proved the anti-people aspect of the government. Not to forget is the devalued Rupee, GST on food items, and price rise of daily use consumables where one can see the anti-people attitude.


Unemployment, and the degrading situation of education and health services have affected the common person of the country especially the inhuman and unconstitutional treatment of farmers, Dalits, Adivasis, and minority communities showing the insensibility of the government.


After the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the Muslim community has been pushed to the margin. In the current BJP government, there is not even a single Muslim MP or minister. In the government which raises the slogan of Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, there is no Muslim member from the Bhartiya Janata Party for even namesake in Loksabha, Rajyasabha and state Assemblies.


The ruling BJP did not field even one Muslim candidates in the Gujarat assembly elections polling for which was completed on December 5. Instead, there was a conspiracy hatched to see that no Muslim even from another party is elected to the Assembly by hook or crook. And this is apparent. There should be at least 18 Muslim MLAs in Gujarat Assembly in accordance with their population, which once used to be the case. Today they have been reduced to three. BJP is trying its best to make a Muslim-free Assembly. They are dreaming to purify the Assembly with Ganga Jal or Gaumutra (cow urine). The task of AAP is to help make the country Congress-free which is working at the behest of RSS. It came to the election on the direction of RSS to cut the votes of Congress in Gujarat. But AAP took back its efforts and changed its strategy after realizing that it was taking away Dalit and Adivasi votes from the BJP instead of Congress. That made this election again a BJP versus Congress contest.


AIMIM and its ideology clearly state that this is not going to form a government in the coming hundreds of years. Even in its home state, AIMIM never crossed seven seats but it jumps into the election in all the states of the country not for winning but to make some party win or lose. AIMIM has no grassroots work in Gujarat nor does it have a cadre base there. AIMIM announced to fight for 30 Assembly seats but it could hardly get 13 candidates. Even in those 13, one withdrew from the contest in favour of Congress.


It was clear that AIMIM had come to fight the election with the help of rebel or disgruntled Congress candidates thus making the fight for them tough and causing defeat. The Hyderabad based party did not release any election manifesto. AIMIM’s president shows concern about the Muslim community but did not have any meetings with the religious or social organizations of the community. This was because he knew that the office bearers of Muslim organizations would have suggested he withdraw from the election instead of supporting AIMIM. Muslim organizations had advised him to field only 10 candidates in Uttar Pradesh but it fielded 98 candidates. Out of 98 seats, AIMIM’s candidates lost deposits from 97 seats.


Despite this clear political scenario, if the Gujarat Assembly becomes Muslim-free, the onus will be on the religious and social leaders of the Muslim community. As every Muslim has the right to exercise their voting rights but if the same is not used judiciously and their votes get split or sold, and the Muslim leadership does not guide the rest correctly, this is bound to happen. People of other religions and castes go to different parties to do their politics. They plan who will be the ruling party or the main opposition party or the name of the chief minister but those who claim to represent the community come to the Muslim society to do the politics of different parties. They engineer vote split mischievously. They help BJP by fielding independent candidates who get 500 or 1000 votes. The Jamalpur seat is an example where this was the case. The Muslim society could have taken this responsibility not to repeat that mistake.

*The author is the convener of the Gujarat Democratic Forum. The views are his own. He can be contacted at [email protected].

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