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Asaduddin Owaisi stresses on political empowerment of Muslims, says vote bank myth dead

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Asaduddin Owaisi

Hyderabad/INN: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday stressed the need for increase in political representation of Muslim community in the elected bodies across the country.

Speaking in the ‘Meet the press’ programme organised by the Telangana Union of Working Journalists  (TUWJ) at Basheerbagh Press Club here, Asaduddin Owaisi said that the community’s development depends on its representation in the law making bodies. However, he said that the representation has to be real. “The benami leadership of Muslims will not help the community in any way,” he said while referring to Muzaffarnagar riots which occurred despite Uttar Pradesh having more than 60 Muslim MLAs.

The MIM President also described the term Muslim vote bank as a myth and said that same myth got shattered in the recently held parliamentary elections in the country. “There has not been the Muslim vote bank rather a Majority vote bank in India from the first elections in the year 1956,” he said.

Asaduddin Owaisi also announced that his party would contest Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka. However, the party is yet to decided on its participation in Delhi and Jharkhand Assembly elections. When asked about the GHMC elections, he said it was too early to comment on the same as the corporation was still under the process of undertaking delimitation of divisions.

The MIM chief criticised a section of media for targeting the MIM on its entry into Maharashtra politics. “Some people are unhappy with the MIM winning two Assembly seats in Maharashtra. “When I am participating in the democratic process no one has the right to call me anti national.” He said defamation notices have been sent to the political leaders of Maharashtra who made such statements against him and his party.

Stating that the slogan of “Jai Bheem, Jai Meem” would have a long-term impact, he said that the MIM would hard to unite Dalits and Muslims to ensure the political empowerment of both the communities.

Asaduddin Owaisi accused the BJP of having dual stand on communalism. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making statements defending the patriotism of Muslims, other BJP leaders are raking up communal tension by raising non-existing issues like Love Jihad. He also objected to the appointment of Prasar Bharti Director Surya Prakash and said he does not fulfill the criteria of Prasar Bharti charter.

The MIM president reiterated that his party was against the Haj subsidy and instead asked the Centre to release the subsidy amount for the education and employment of Muslim girls. He praised the TRS Government for enhancing the budget for minorities’ welfare in Telangana and hoped that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao would review all the schemes quarterly. Stating that his party was not against the Metro Rail Project, he suggested the government and Metro Rail authorities to take a different route in Old City. He said it would be ideal if the Metro Rail is taken from Bahadurpura and Kalapather to Falaknuma.

Praniti Shinde must apologise for her ban MIM statement, says Asaduddin Owaisi

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asaduddin-owaisi

Mumbai: All India Majlis-e-Itteh-adul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi has strongly condemned the remarks made by Praniti Shinde, the Congress MLA from Solapur Central, over banning his party. He threatened to file a defamation case against the daughter of former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, if she did not apologise for dubbing the MIM a “treasonous political party.”

Mr. Owaisi said in Hyderabad that the MIM’s success in the recent Maharashtra Assembly election had led to her outburst.

“Why is she [Praniti Shinde] calling for a ban on us now? Nobody spoke of a ban when we supported the Congress from 2004 to 2012. It was we who bailed out the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh in 2011 when the main opposition party, the Telugu Desam Party, tabled a no-confidence motion,” said Mr. Owaisi adding that Ms. Shinde’s controversial statement smacked of Congress hypocrisy.

On Wednesday, Ms Praniti had demanded a ban on the MIM saying that the party was working against the country’s interest.

“The MIM is inimical to the country’s interests. They have never tried to project their ideas on a democratic platform. I am firmly for the proscription of this party,” she said, speaking in Solapur district.

Ms. Shinde, the MLA for Solapur City Central, further said that the speeches of MIM leaders ought to be carefully studied and police action initiated against them.

“The MIM has fundamentally been against India rather than any section of the population and harboured plans for subversion,” she remarked.

“Our decision to contest the Maharashtra election and our success in Solapur has thoroughly shaken Ms. Shinde. Solapur is not the private property of the Shindes. Any party can contest elections in India anywhere,” Mr. Owaisi said.

Why alarm over Majlis win in Maharashtra is unwarranted

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Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen

by Advocate S. Warsi and Faisal Ahmed Khan

Even though the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has succeeded in winning only two seats in the just concluded Maharashtra assembly polls, it has won the hearts of lakhs of people and is now able to walk hand in hand with the minorities and people from backward communities.

The party has not only demonstrated its ability to contest elections outside its stronghold of Hyderabad and Telangana/Andhra Pradesh but also proved that the Muslim voter is no longer a puppet of the “secular” parties. The Muslim voter, overwhelmingly young, is no longer prepared to bear the burden of secularism all by himself.

The General election results early this year have had a direct impact on the assembly elections in which the Muslim voters saw secularism at its weakest with the majority of voters openly polling in the name of religion!

After the Maharashtra verdict, some people who supported reasoned saying as to how long the Muslim voter will carry the burden of secularism on his shoulders and allow himself to be taken for a ride time and again.

After all, Muslims have all these years voted for the parties of Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Mulayam, Ajit Singh, Lalu Yadav, Communists and Mamata and elected them and their party candidates in the name of Hindu-Muslim unity and secularism.

In the general elections this year, the Hindu voters in north India chose the hardline Hindutva candidates who openly spewed venom against Muslims amidst unprecedented communal polarization. Under the circumstances, why is it surprising if Muslim voters choose to vote for candidates who are seen as protecting their interests?

Many in the community feel that the so-called secular parties have largely ignored their problems all these years and in fact instead of solving them they’ve muddled them up. Now in this scenario if they witness someone from their own ranks came forward to take up their problems and concerns then there should be no objection from any quarter.

MIM Asaduddin Owaisi

MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi, who has been a very successful parliamentarian and a good orator, completely demolished Samajwadi Party and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of Raj Thackeray in Maharashtra and performed well. His party’s success deserves to be acknowledged and seen in its right perspective, instead of being portrayed as a mere “Muslim party”.

Many people have chosen to see the Majlis success in Maharashtra polls as a threat to secularism and even the country’s integrity. What do they think about the role of the BJP unabashedly devoted to the Hindus, Kerala Congress of Christians or the BSP which is dedicated to the welfare of the Dalits?

This is not to argue that the Majlis should and would be an answer to these parties catering to a particular community or group. However, until and unless all sections of the society get their due and their representatives in the parliament to convey their viewpoint, no democracy can truly claim to be one.

Some suggest that the MIM is nothing but the Shiv Sena of Indian Muslims. But this argument doesn’t fly. Shiv Sena’s existence has always been on the ground of promoting regional chauvinism and hatred towards non-Maharashtrians and openly indulging in violence at each and every opportunity.

This hasn’t been the case with the MIM. Shiv Sainiks have been found guilty in a number of communal riots and violence all over the country.  The Justice Sri Krishna Commission held them responsible for the 1992-93 Bombay riots in which more than 900 people died.

So comparing the MIM’s championing of the minority rights with the violent politics of Shiv Sena isn’t fair. Of course, Akbaruddin Owaisi’s controversial speeches do not help and cannot be defended by anyone. But then, as the MIM President Asaduddin Owaisi has repeatedly asked, why Togadias and Adityanaths roam free in spite of their continuous hate speeches and venomous propaganda? In the wake of Muzaffarnagar carnage, BJP president Amit Shah openly asked Hindu voters to take revenge for ‘love jihad’ and other crimes.

Given the disappointment with the Congress, Samajwadi Party and others and lack of trust in the other available options, it’s hardly surprising if Muslims voted for the parties like the MIM.

Since the BJP came into power, there has been a hysterical hate campaign against the Muslims in the name of ‘love jihad’ and other imagined conspiracies. This has been visible almost in every state. Inflammatory speech has become an everyday job and the RSS has been aggressively enforcing “Hindu” identity and agenda.

No wonder Muslims are forced to turn to their own parties. If they continue to vote in support of a particular party, then the worth and strength of this party with even a handful MLA’s increases. Hopefully, there would be more representatives of Muslims in the parliament who could raise and voice their opinion freely.

However, the party articulating minority concerns and interests could and should work for the betterment of the society as a whole. So the initial MIM success in Maharashtra needs to be seen from this perspective and viewed as a good development for democracy. After all, it is the right of everyone in a democracy to choose their representatives and voice their opinion.

Advocate S. Warsi and Faisal Ahmed Khan are lawyers based in New Delhi. Views expressed here are personal.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) debuts with victory in Maharashtra, will now focus on UP, West Bengal & other states

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MIM Asaduddin Owaisi

Mumbai: The All India Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen, scored a stunning victory in Maharashtra by winning two seats, marking a relatively assured debut in the Maharashtra assembly elections.

In its first attempt to expand outside Hyderabad and have a pan-India presence, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party bagged the prestigious Byculla seat in Mumbai and the Aurangabad Central and East seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly.

Waris Yusuf Pathan became the party’s first member of the legislative assembly (MLA) in the state when he was declared the winner in Byculla, over rivals Madhu Chavan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and gangster Arun Gawli’s daughter Geeta Gawli of the Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS).

However, the big gain for the AIMIM came in the Aurangabad Central seat, where its candidate, former NDTV journalist Imtiaz Jaleel, defeated sitting Shiv Sena MLA Pradeep Jaiswal by 19,982 votes.

In neighbouring Aurangabad East, the AIMIM’s Abdul Gaffar Quadri led for most of the counting, opening up a lead of nearly 30,000 votes before being upstaged by the BJP’s Atul Save by a slim margin of 4,260 votes. Quadri, too, managed an impressive tally of 60,268 votes.

Aurangabad was a part of Hyderabad state during the Nizam’s rule.

In Nanded South, in the initial rounds of counting, the party’s Moin Mukhtar led the BJP’s Dilip Kandkurte by 4,000 votes, but Kandkurte managed to bounce back. By the end of counting, Mukhtar was relegated to third place, finishing with 34,590 votes. Hemant Patil of the Shiv Sena won the seat. Likewise, in Parbhani, in a riveting battle for second place, the AIMIM’s Syed Khalad Syad Sahebjan finished ahead of the BJP’s Anandrao Bharose by nearly 3,000 votes. Shiv Sena candidate Rahul Patil won the seat.

The AIMIM also managed creditable third place finishes in Nanded North and the four Mumbai-Thane constituencies of Kurla, Mumbra-Kalwa, Versova and Mumbadevi. And, for a party known to represent Muslims, the AIMIM fielded a Hindu candidate in Avinash Barve from Kurla.

Scores of supporters of the party celebrated the victory at Darussalam, the party headquarters in Mumbai. A stream of workers and supporters were seen congratulating the MIM chief and his younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, who aggressively campaigned in Mumbai and parts of Marathwada.

The MIM leaders felt it was a big achievement for the party considering that it did not have any organisational structure in the state and majority of its candidates were political novices.

“It is a good beginning. We will now build on this victory and expand the party to other states,” a senior party leader told the media. He said the results reflect the disillusionment of Muslims with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.

“The Congress-NCP alliance was in power for 15 years but did nothing for the development of Muslims. It even failed to protect the community. In fact, Muslim youths were arrested and tortured after blasts in Malegaon in which right-wing fundamentalist groups were involved,” the leader said.

He pointed out that the condition of Muslims, who constitute over 13 percent of the state’s population, went from bad to worse during the last 15 years. “The Muslims were looking for an alternative so that their voice can be heard in the legislature and the MIM provided them the platform,” said another leader.

Focus on other states

Claiming that the poll campaign in Maharashtra witnessed Dalit-Muslim unity, the MP said the party will spread this message to Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and other states.

MIM leader in Telangana assembly, Akbaruddin Owaisi termed the party’s victory Maharashtra as historic. Akbaruddin, who led the poll campaign, said it was for the first time that a party went to another state and won two seats in a short span of 15 days.

He said despite the hurdles created in MIM’s campaign by the police, people backed the party. He assured the people that MIM will work hard to live up to their expectations by raising their voice in the legislature.

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