Despite hundreds of communal riots, including Muzaffarnagar, and betrayals, the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh have no option but to rally behind the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance in order to keep out communal and fascist forces, reports Abdul Bari Masoud from the battleground UP
Abdul Bari Masoud | Clarion India
LUCKNOW — “She (Mayawati) is the most unreliable lady; otherwise Muslims would have opted her,” quipped Mohammad Faheem Raza Khan, a retired principal of Islamia Inter College, Bareilly.
This sums up the mood of educated Muslims in UP as the third phase of the elections for the 17th assembly is now over. The battle for their votes has been heating up.
As I talked to a group of Muslim intellectuals at a furniture showroom in Bareilly which is their daily meeting place, they all were of the opinion that they cannot trust Mayawati anymore. She may once again align with the BJP to form the next government in the State as she did in the past thrice.
Raza Khan said: “Our one-point agenda is to defeat the fascist forces.” Seconding his views, in spite of assurances by Mayawati that she will not enter into an alliance with BJP at any cost, Prof Khawaja Mohammad Abdul Moghni (alias Babur) said many Muslims had already made up their mind to support the Samajwadi Party and Congress alliance.
Nazim Baig, an educationist, said their first preference would be alliance candidates and if their candidate is not formidable, then we will go to the BSP because we want the return of amity between the major communities of the state.
When asked about the Akhilesh Yadav government’s failure to prevent communal incidents and promises made to the community, Raza Khan said: “We have no choice but to go with the SP as it is best among the worst.”
The same perception is palpable in the dusty lanes and bye-lanes of this city which is also the seat of Bareilvi sect in the Sub-continent founded by Maulana Ahmad Raza Khan in the early 20th century.
Octogenarian Maulana Abdul Manan Raza Khan (alias Manani Miyan), a great-grand-son of Raza Khan, wants people from both communities should follow the example of Bihar and defeat the communal forces. Talking to this scribe in his Hujara in the Dargah Aala Hazrat Campus, Manani Miyan even lashes out at his grandson Maulana Tauqir Raza Khan for fielding candidates in the fray. Maulana Tauqir’s All India Millat Itehad Council has fielded dozens of candidates in assembly seats across the state. ‘’He (Tauqir) has taken money from the BJP to divide Muslim votes’, Manani Miyan alleges.
Denying the charge, Maulana Tauqir Raza says he only fielded some candidates in selected constituencies in keeping mind, not to divide Muslim votes. He blames the Congress for the sheer backwardness of the community and asserts that the Congress cannot regain the confidence of the community unless it tenders an apology for its grave injustices done to Muslims.
The city, also known for its cottage industry namely furniture and Zardozi works, is still reeling from the adverse effects of demonetization.
Zardozi worker Mohammad Naushad says hundreds of workers attached to this profession lost their job because of the so-called demonetization and people’s anger will show itself in the ballot boxes.
The same feeling is running high in Saharanpur and surrounding areas which are more than 300 km away from Bareilly where wood-carving industry badly hit by the demonetization.
Local journalist Shahid Zubairi says the SP-Cong alliance has an edge over the Spas far as the Muslim vote is concerned. Many Muslims considered SP as their own party because, unlike the BSP, Muslims were well represented in the party hierarchy from the bottom up. While in BSP, even the minority cell head is from the Dalit community.
Echoing his sentiments, Maulana Mohammad Yaqub Bulandshahri, who runs a girls’ composite school (madrassa imparting religious as well modern education), says Mayawati’s past is haunting her as she used inappropriate language against the community after she lost the elections last time around.
In contrast to SP’s 56 Muslim candidates, the BSP has fielded almost 100 Muslim candidates that show its desperation to win back the community’s support.
Its point man is Naseemudin Siddiqui who has been entrusted to lure back Muslims who are a crucial factor in BSP’s scheme of recapturing power in the state.
Though BSP has succeeded enlisting the support of Azamgarh-based Rashtriya Ulema Council (RUC), All India Majlis Ulema-e-Hind (AIMUH), Delhi’s Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari and others, many Muslims say that these appeals will not cut much ice.
Maulana Ashraf Miyan’s All India Ulema and Mashaikh Board (AIUMB) also announced its support to BSP. He is seen in the community with suspicion for his continued divisive outpourings and for taking help from the Modi government by organizing Sufi Conference last year.
Syed Wajahat Shah (Deoband), a writer and teacher, said the Muslim electorate in UP cannot be swayed by such appeals this time as they are politically mature enough in deciding their fate. Wajahat Shah’s origins are in Kashmir and he is also the grandson of Maulana Syed Anwar Shah Kashmiri, who was the prominent Muhaddis (expert in Hadiths) of Darul Uloom Deoband and a freedom fighter.
In the caste-ridden society of the state, Muslims form the single largest cohesive group who account for nearly 20 percent of the electorate and can make or mar the electoral fortune of any party or its candidate in the high-stakes assembly polls.
However, it is an irony that nobody is talking about the pressing issues of the community. Their security and development, even justice to the seven gang rape survivors of Muzaffarnagar riots, all were relegated to the backburner.
There is no need to seek a reason for this as Mohammad Asim Qasmi eloquently points out that in the given hate-filled political scenario, wherein the majoritarian concept of democracy is taking firm roots, the so-called secular parties fear to lose Hindu votes if they talk of minority issues. Asim, an MBA from the US, is the youngest son of Maulana Mohammad Salim Qasmi, the rector of Darul Uloom (Waqf) Deoband. It is not a healthy sign for any democratic polity, he adds. Now, these issues have been left for the likes of Owaisi to raise, rather than by the ‘secular’ parties.
