After
2019, what?
Asad Mirza
Since, early morning by when the election
trends started pouring in on every TV channel and social media platform. A pall
of gloom seems to have descended on every Muslim locality in the country. But
the moot question to answer is, are we ourselves responsible for this? The
answer to this is, both yes and no.
Before the elections a lot of debate was
focussed on the tactical voting by Muslims. But the trends seem to belie this.
As the trends indicate, in Delhi and Bihar to some extent is some seats of UP,
where they were supposed to vote tactically, at the last moment they shifted
their allegiance to the Congress and as a result, BJP is leading in all these
seats.
The trends have also established the fact
that India is going to be a, minority hating, democracy hating, anti-secular
Hindu Rashtra, where one religion and one perverse ideology is going to
dominate the entire nation.
The election results have also brought home
two stark realities.
One, the Muslims of India have to get their
act together and fight for their religious and minority identity in a country
which is going to be dominated by one religious and political thought only.
Second, it has shown that what the common
Indian wants. In this we’ll have to include both educated and non-educated,
secular and non-secular Hindus. What the results show is that every Hindu wants
their religion to dominate and be the foremost in every walk of life.
The trends have /results will establish the
fact that common Indian voters, contrary to what every sane person would like
to believe, hate Muslims and Pakistan and their stupidity was exploited by the
right-wingers. Added to this is the fact that most political parties in the
country have become family firms. Individuals like Atishi who talked about
education and achievements in Delhi, are losing to an absolute nobody, whereas
people who are terror accused are going to make laws for the country soon.
Coupled with this is the spurt in the market sentiment, which has gone up by
4000 points. All this points to the common thread, the hatred for Muslims and Pakistan,
a large dose of which was used by the current dispensation during its election
campaign and it actually translated into real votes for them.
In reality, the un-educated, lumpen
elements have been supporters of the vitriolic, fascistic Hindutva thought
since 1992. These elements got emboldened when nothing happened to the
destroyers of Babri masjid and the secular fabric of India. All the perpetrators
of the mosque attack were freed by the courts, though they were left behind by
the current dispensation along the road is another story.
Coming back to the first point, the Indian
Muslims need to think logically and impassionedly about the choices available
to them, and also introspect what had led to the current situation.
Muslims need to understand that in spite of
being the largest minority and close to 17 million in numbers, they are the
largest ignored group in the country, whatever the political dispensation has
been in the last 71 years.
After 1947, it took approximately 20 years
for the Indian Muslims to get their act together and regain their breath from
the aftershocks of the partition. Unfortunately during that time, they also
lost tall leaders like Maulana Abul Kalaam Azad, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai and others,
and it indeed made them rudderless. The leaders who took the place of the
leaders like Azad and Kidwai, were pygmies and second class leaders with very
little mass base and in order to survive, most of them became cronies of the so
called largest nationalist party and its pseudo-secular policies.
By mid 60s the Muslims were able to get
their act together somehow, and in this they were helped by the job boom in the
Middle East. The growth in business, finances and education was quite
considerable. But one area that they neglected was education, which was the
ultimate route to business growth and increasing their share in the
administrative process of the country. In addition, the space, which was
vacated by the absence of any tall political leader, was taken over by the
religious leaders of the community and the other political also helped to prop
them up, as it fulfilled their policy of pseudo-secularism and paying lip
services to the demands and aspirations of the community.
Now to come out of this abyss, the process
of introspection should start in earnest by the Muslims themselves. They should
realise that divisions amongst themselves is not going to give any benefit to
anyone, the ultimate losers will be all. The community has to realise that
intra-religious divides should be ignored, its financial and educational
resources should be utilised to the maximum by being inclusive and it should
try to increase its share in the administrative setup and process of the country.
It will have to choose its own leaders with a clear vision for them and the
country and not get bogged down by any divisive forces and harmful elements
both within and outside.
--ends--
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