MUSLIM LEADERSHIP

Dalit Voice on Failure of Muslim Leadership

Dalits form 20% of India's population and if 15% of the Muslims were to join hands, the very course of Indian history could be changed. This prompted us to launch the Dalit-Muslim unity movement - perhaps the first in India. And the Dalit-Muslim unity has since become a big force. But what actually happened? Instead of the Muslims coming in support of Dalits, the Muslims themselves got into trouble, when the Hindu nazis demolished their Babari Masjid.

Today, it is the Muslims who are worse than Dalits. Forget about Muslims supporting Dalits, Muslims themselves were sinking, drowning. How can the drowning Muslims dream of Dalit-Muslim unity?

The Amir (JMH says that) listened to our every word with great care, patience and full sympathy.

He said he fully appreciated our analysis, concern nd also conclusions. The Jamate-Islami had failed to "educate" the Muslim masses not only on the revolutionary message of Koran and Moududi but Islam itself.

"How can we identify the Enemy, let alone fighting it, when we have not even educated our own people?"

To sum up: The Muslim leadership including its ulema has totally surrendered to India's ruling class.

The masses of Muslims, over 95% of them, are however revolutionary, restless and impatient to act.

They are itching to fight and finish the Enemy. They are boiling with anger, they are eager to join hands with Dalits but the 5% of Muslim elites and its leadership is putting the brake ..

The total bankruptcy of the Muslim religious leadership necessarily should lead the Muslim masses to search for new leadership.

The existing corrupted and coopted leadership, which compromised and surrendered to the Enemy for petty gains, violating the dictates of the Holy Koran and thereby inviting the "Curse of Allah" that resulted in the Babari Masjid demolition must go.

Why the Muslim leadership is helpless, speechless and resorted to total surrender to Hindu nazis? Why did it refuse to join the Dalit-Muslim unity movement?

Some Muslim organisations have been getting foreign funds. And when they started wagging their tails, the Hindu nazi rulers who receive much bigger foreign funds cut their tails and warned them that if ever they were to speak against Hindu nazis they would be crushed. It was a stern warning.

Such Muslim organisations receiving foreign funds chose to obey the nazi dictates even at the cost of betraying Koran and thereby inviting the "Curse of Allah".

These Muslim organisations became mere natak companies holding puppet shows at the command of the Hindu nazis. Instead of Dalit-Muslim unity, they started speaking of the elusive and impossible "Hindu-Muslim" unity. It was a total surrender to Hindu nazis. This is what happened with the Jamate-Islami also. Today the Jamat has become a toothless tiger.

The entire Muslim leadership has collapsed and surrendered before the Hindu rulers. This is the tragedy which can be averted only by the revolutionary Muslim masses.                       

(Source: The Dalit Voice, 16-31 March, 1997)

Sunday, Calcutta on Ghulam Nabi Azad

Say this for Ghulam Nabi Azad. At least he is loyal to the Congress president. No matter who that is. Then again, for someone who now depends on a Rajya Sabha nomination to enter Parliament, he has little choice but to please the powers that are.

A Gandhi loyalist, Azad was made Youth Congress president by Indira Gandhi in the late Seventies. It was then that he became close to Sanjay and, later, when he became Prime Minister, Rajiv. Azad was then identified as a Gandhi loyalist. For this, he was made general secretary by Rajiv Gandhi. Later when Narasimha Rao took over as Prime Minister, predictably, Azad emerged as his troubleshooter Azad willingly denounced Arjun Singh to prove his loyalty to Rao.

Last year, when the Congress Working Committee members demanded Narasimha Rao's removal as party president, Azad's name headed the list.

When Rao stepped down as party president and a consensus was reached around Sitaram Kesri's name.

Once again, Azad has got his old job back - both as the Congress president's crony and secretary general.

So, when Azad's Rajya Sabha term ran out, he knew he could count on Kesri to back him ... Azad is one of the three who now form the coterie closest to Kesri.

When Kesri wanted to take over as Congress Parliamentary Party chief in January (1997), it was Azad, along with Anwar, who negotiated with Pawar and built up a consensus around Kesri's name. For Azad, the name of the game was the same. He was still the troubleshooter. Only he had a new boss.

How does he do this? Maybe the answer lies in his great organisational skills. He has often said that he is more interested in organisational matters than electoral politics. A great public relations man, Azad takes care not to rub anyone the wrong way.

And the soft-spoken general secretary is rarely at a loss for an answer. Azad is not going anywhere. He will always remain where he is: The man standing next to the Congress president.

(Source: The Sunday, 16-22 March, 1997)