MUSLIM POLITICS

SK Sadar Nayeem on Muslim Leadership

Amid bargaining stands the bemused ordinary Muslim. His leaders are men of straw, his franchise a commodity for barter in the political bazaar, The Muslim vote has become all important: his hopes and aspirations interest no party. This is the paradox confronting India's largest minority community.

Actually, this whole business about seeking the community's combined ballot is flawed. Time and again, the "monolithic" Muslim vote bank has been proved a myth.

Despite (these) claims about a collective Muslim mandate persist. Some "leaders" of the community thrive on such talk. All this serves to further stereotypes about the community and removes attention from the real problem of Muslims in India - economic and socio- educational backwardness.

In the immediate aftermath of the general election, non-BJP political parties forged alliances to "defend secularism". Such attempts are now being repeated before the UP elections. Is this activity guided by ideology or is it a means to gain power, using secularism and the rights of minorities as a ruse? Sections of educated Muslims have begun to wonder. Ironically, even some Muslims who are no supporters of the BJP speak of it being less hypocritical than its opponents. Wary of both foes and apparent friends. India's Muslims are rudderless, directionless and increasingly cynical.

The tragedy begins with the community's traditional leaders. These include sections of the clergy and politicians who have benefitted from governmental largesse, thus warning the epithet "Sarkari Musalman". These people have yoked the fears of the community, worked to keep it psychologically insular and one nothing to better its educational indices. They have only harped on a cultural identity.

The result is that Muslims comprise 14 per cent of the Indian population but one per cent of the civil services. The community's per capital income remains five per cent below the national figure. The old leaders must accept the blame for this. For decades, they have only raised alarm about the community's security without actually seeking to eradicate any communal divide or misunderstanding. They have exploited the ordinary Muslim's worries, become the arbiters of his vote and sold it to the highest bidder.

To be fair, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the futility of sectarian demands became clear to many Muslims. There was an urge to change, stemming from socio-economic compulsions. Some progress was made... Then came the Shah Bano issue and the Ayodhya campaign; and everything was undone. The medieval imagery, given a lurid color by the Hindu right, returned.

Following the riots of 1992-93 insecurity and alienation against gripped the community. Even noted liberals and cultural figures felt threatened. Notionally if not physically, the ghetto returned as the cocoon. Yet, these sentiments were not evident in the 1996 elections. Obviously, the country's emotions have ebbed over four years. The Muslim is no longer willing to be cannon fodder for fanaticism,

Is this another false dawn? To ensure it is not, Muslims need to evolve a new social leadership, one which sees life beyond politics. The Muslim populace is largely illiterate and poor, Modern education, trade and industry have not made much headway with it. Partition deprived Indian Muslims of a modern middle class, intelligentsia and bourgeoisie. The vacuum has never really been filled.

What must a Muslim voter demand from his candidates? One, more schools for his sons and daughters. Two freedoms from discrimination while seeking jobs, whether in the private or public sector. Perhaps financial institutions could launch preferential schemes to grant Muslim youth loans for little businesses. The lasting security of the community lies in economic welfare, not in the rhetoric of an election meeting.

(Source: The Times of India, 20 September, 1996)

Govt. Statement on Haj Management

Some complaints regarding accommodation have been brought to the notice of the Government. These relate to distance from the Haram Sharif and inadequacy of facilities in individual buildings. These complaints have been investigated thoroughly. Based on our experience this year, it has been decided that the units lacking in adequate facilities will not be taken for the next Haj.

The decision that aircraft for carrying Haj pilgrims should be chartered by the Haj Committee for Haj 1996 was taken by the Government of India because it was felt that this would provide the maximum benefit to the pilgrims. Air India was fully associated and provided technical guidance.

All aircraft chartered by the Haj Committee for the Haj 1996 air charter movement had been technically inspected and certified for airworthiness by the Director General of Civil Aviation before the contracts were signed with the charter parties.

(Source: RSUQ No. 349 dated 17 July, 1996 by K.R. Khan)

Lynn Report Against Jaffer Sharief Shivani in the Asian Age, 5 March, 1996.

Mr. C.K. Jaffer Sharief amassed assets worth nearly Rs. 100 crores during his various terms in office beginning as minister of state for railways in 1980.

Most of Mr. Sharief's assets, both movable and immovable, were acquired during his tenure as a minister, including his last stint as Union railways minister from July 1991 to August 1995, according to a report prepared by the investigative agencies.

The report traces the rise of Mr. Sharief from a village in Karnataka where he owned 16 or 17 acres of ancestral land. In 1959, Mr. Sharief's wife, Ameenabi came to Bangalore in "a pathetic condition", accompanied by Mr. Sharief's brother and three sisters, the report says.

In 1986, when Mr. Sharief became minister of state for coal, Ameenabi purchased a residential plot at 46, Habibs Road in Bangalore. The 2,280 sq. ft. plot was bought for Rs. 2 lakhs on March 31 and a three-storeyed building was constructed which is now valued at Rs. 3 crores.

Ameenabi bought another 8,000 sq. ft. bungalow at 210, Defense Colony, Indira Nagar, in Bangalore for Rs 59 lakh in 1992, when Mr. Sharief was Union railway minister. The bungalow was registered vide documents 4020/92 for a registration amount of Rs. 7.08 lakhs and Rs.1,18,025, out of which Rs.6.98 was remitted through treasury challan (No. B-10) on February 16, 1992.

Soon after Mr. Sharief became the railway minister in 1991, his family acquired agricultural land worth Rs. 8 lakh in Krishna Raga Puram, Hubli, Bangalore in the names of his wife, two sons and two daughters.

The sale deeds were registered in the R.K. Puram sub-registrar's office on August 16, 1991 under registration number 2791 to 2795/91-92.

The cost of the land could not be ascertained, the report states, but estimates it at the prevailing market price during that period of Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh per acre.

This property, bought from one Sri Hanumanthappa, however, came under dispute when Hanumanthappa's legal heirs discovered that the sale deeds of these properties were executed when Mr. Hanumanthappa was in coma following a prolonged illness. The court has since stayed the operation of the sale.

The family, violating the Karnataka Land Reform Act which prohibits a person having an assured income of Rs. 12,000 (raised to Rs. 50,000 in 1991) per annum from holding or buying agricultural land, further bought 13 acres of agricultural land in a village in Hubli in Bangalore in 1982. Apart from the above properties, various family members also purchased about 37 acres between 1980-85, in Challekere village. In 1993, following public allegations and a memorandum by some MLAs about "land grabbing activities of Mr. Sharief" the state cabinet directed the then chief secretary Mr. J.C. Lynn to conduct an inquiry into the allegations. A report was accordingly submitted by Mr. Lynn on November 2, 1993, confirming all the sale deeds. But no action was taken by the court. Following the hawala disclosures, the report finally found its way to the central government.

(Source: News from India, New Delhi)

The Sangh's View of the Birth of Majlis-e-Mushawarat

A major development which is sure to weaken national integrity, and to encourage fissiparous tendency in the country has been overlooked. In the shape of Muslim Majlis Mushawarat the spirit of Jinnah is coming alive. The Majlis has launched its political campaign of separatist revivalism last week simultaneously almost all over the country. The campaign has been launched in UP, Bihar, Bengal, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and in other areas of the country. This campaign is based on a call to unite Muslim voters all over the country to pressurize political parties, splinter groups and leaders to accept the basic thesis that there is a Muslim problem in the country which could be satisfied met by the implementation a nine point programme, recalling the fourteen points of Shri Jinnah which ultimately led to the Partition of the country.

Significantly, this nine point programme of Muslim Majlis was introduced before a large gathering of Muslims in Lucknow on August 20 at the Ganga Prasad Memorial Hall where the late Jinnah raised the slogan of Muslim India in 1936 while inaugurating a students' conference. The leading light of the Majlis in UP, A.J. Faridi, made out a case for the alleged existence of a Muslim problem in the country and the State, voiced a number of demands based upon grievances and alleged that Muslims were being denied their fundamental rights. There was no protection for their religious and cultural interests in the present educational system; they were denied their due political representation under the present electoral law, they had no place in the welfare schemes of the State, and their personal law was not protected. Their mother tongue Urdu, was discouraged. He urged the setting up of minority boards all over the country, to demand full preservation of separate communal educational institutions. He said there should be autonomy for Muslim trusts.

The programme was adopted by the Muslim Majlis Mushawarat recently. The inspiring ideologist of the new separatist movement in Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Mian, head of the Nadwa College at Lucknow who is reported to have wide contacts in the Muslim world...

Commending the new programme of the Muslim Majlis Maulana said that Muslims had a historic destiny in India and they had to fulfil it despite all obstacles. He spoke of the "grievances" of the Muslims... and said that he did not want to live in a country where "out rights" were not preserved. He said that the Muslims could not allow to be taken for granted. He said: "My religious command has a force in all over the Muslim world. It will have a force in India too". He also said that there could be no freedom if the Muslims were not safe in India.

The meeting at Lucknow was presided over by Faridi.

(Source :The Organizer, 4 September, 1966)