All eyes are on All India Majlis-E-IttehadulMuslimeen (MIM) these days. As the party gears up and sweeps to victory in Maharashtra civic elections, it has certainly given nightmares to BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress, NCP and other regional political parties in the state.
Faced with the changing political landscape in India, it’s important to understand what has attributed a phenomenal success to MIM? The very question has hit the bull’s eyes recently, and we see how media call for an emergency debate for electoral and political assessments.
Disheartening too to see how the 4th pillar of democracy sets its momentum up and imprecisely creates a persona of MIM by labeling it as a “Muslims’ party”. Many a times, the panelists beef about Owasi brothers for doing “identity and divisive politics”, which they believe are not good for the secular fabric of the country. I’m not sold on the idea of media houses and press for the kind of ruckus they are spreading across. First off, MIM is not a Muslims’ party, but yes a “minority party”, perhaps first in its kind with a unique combination of OBC, Dalits, STs/SCs and Muslims. Officially, MIM has more Dalits than Muslims candidates fielding the elections, both in Hyderabad and Aurangabad.
Coming back to the question – what attributes MIM to garner success in Maharashtra? Let’s do an assessment through a different kaleidoscope in the background of the contemporary Indian politics.
Prima facie, identity politics seems to be ending up polarizing society and emotions take precedence over growth and development. As a result of this, Dalits and Muslims are endorsing the virulent MIM ideology.
In the last 60 years, we have seen a sprawling growth of regional political parties. They have played a manipulative caste-based politics for many years, bringing no luck to the minorities. Bihar, Jharkand and UP are a few examples of having a caste-based governance. They have played a divisive and caste-based politics since their formations. Like Congress, they too have not balked at using the so-called ‘secularism’ as a proxy to dupe the minorities and were held responsible for several caste riots.
Not shrouded in mystery that the Congress party has always played a ‘secular’ card for many decades in order to inculcate a fear among minorities as if their ‘basic rights and ‘secure lives’ would have been jeopardized if they choose a saffron party. Minorities believed the so-called secular party for a long. So, essentially MIM is a product of Congress failure.
When the Modi wave engulfed the whole nation during the Lok Sabha election, the “fear psychosis” got dispelled out of their minds, and they were wooed by the BJP led by Mr. Modi’s famous electoral slogan –“सबका साथ सबका विकास”. The Prime Minister took the “communal abyss” out of the minorities’ minds after infamous Godhra communal genocide. He politically used the so-called “electoral slogan” that made minorities believe that the Modi government would ensure economic and social development for all people sans any religion, caste, or creed discriminations. Unfortunately, a year after, his report card is out. The minorities are feeling betrayed once again with the same “fear psychosis” they had during the Congress regime. Hence, they look back yet another alternative in the form of MIM and AAP.
Recently, not only do they see a less number of their representatives in the Parliament, but also they have faced several attacks on minority institutions. They are being threatened with communal and inflammatory speeches by the BJP’s communal alliances. Further, there is growing agrarian distress. Despite addressing an emergency like situation in agriculture, the Modi government appears to be insensitive to the growing plight of the farmers and remain firm at the draconian land acquisition ordinance. A beef ban has further added fuel to the fire.
Beef banning in Maharashtra and Haryana has created a deep crisis in leather, chemical and allied industries. It too has a serious economic repercussion on agriculture. Maharashtra economy is likely to incur a 10,000 crore loss due to ban.
Currently 72 communities in Kerala eat beef. Other than Muslims, Dalits, Christians, even Hindus do eat beef. The beef fascism imposed politically on minorities denies them from eating food of their choice. They look at this yet another suppressive measure to snatch a morsel of food from their mouths. The beef ban clearly exposes the hypocrisy of Modi’s progressive shot – “सबकासाथसबकाविकास,” because such a measure is bringing more social and economic plight to these marginalized sections of the society. A big chunk of “professionals”, especially Querashi community is left with the destitute. They are looking for an alternative to slaughter Jersey cows of foreign origin, because they think they are less holy!
Further, Modi’s pro-capitalism is invoking the ire from a large section of Dalits farmers. We are seeing these days how hundreds and thousands of dissatisfied farmers committing suicides across the states.
Today, India’s biggest demographic dividend is a young population. Youths from different minority communities want social, economic and political development. They don’t believe in divisive politics like RSS and other Hindu Right Wing forces have been doing for a long. They don’t want to be used as a mere vote bank, for they know their ancestors have been manipulated politically by the so-called secular parties in the past.
AAP’s success in Delhi is a clear indication of what young India needs. They need development. Whether the AAP’s popularity puts a stop to MIM’s burgeoning popularity in UP, Bihar, and Maharashtra may depend on how the present “regional party” in Delhi performs and delivers. It’s too early to predict anything at this point of time, because AAP has a long mile to go!
Whether beef or no beef, Asaduddin Owaisi is definitely milking the political benefit. He has leapt a long way to do his homework and rightly gauged the current political temperature. After Maharashtra and UP, MIM may likely to target Jharkhand, Bihar and Kerala. Whether or not MIM would ever become a national party, but seeing the burgeoning popularity with no viable alternative at this moment to address Dalits-Muslims combo, I personally believe that the party may become an integral alliance of a coalition government in near future.
