FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK

The Battle of Kishanganj!

A defeat in an election is part of the game. One should take it in one's stride. But my defeat in Kishanganj raises questions which every Muslim political activist must sit up and seriously consider.

My defeat resulted from the ground reality of total communalization and consequent polarization between the BJP and the JD, with the latter under the leadership of Laloo Prasad Yadav being recognized by the Muslim electors as the sole 'protector and defender of the Muslims against the BJP! This left no space for any third candidate to operate.

In a tactical sense, the Muslim voters of Kishanganj. a sensitive border constituency with 60% Muslim majority, spread over the three districts of Kishanganj, Araria and Purnea, acted on my advice to the secular voters all over the country to vote for the strongest candidate against the BJP, rising above all other considerations. So they rose above all considerations and voted for the JD candidate Taslimuddin, whom they perceived as the strongest candidate with the backing of his sub-community, the support of the JD and of its leader Laloo Prasad Yadav and the requisite muscle and money. In the process they forgot that the battle against the BJP does not begin and end in May 1996 nor is it limited to Kishanganj. The war began with the foundation of the RSS and is being fought all over the country, on many fronts political, parliamentary, academic and mass media by many progressive parties, organizations, associations and individuals. But it is futile to expect the politically simple and generally illiterate people of Kishanganj to have this wide perspective or to take in the whole. phenomenon in their calculation.

My defeat, they do not realize, is the biggest victory, the BJP could have hoped for; as a BJP spokesman said in Kishanganj; Shahabuddin's voice has to be silenced for our objectives to be fulfilled and, therefore, it made an all-out effort to defeat me.

There is a positive aspect in this communal polarization. The difference between the Barelvis and the Deobandis was kept aside; the conflict of interest among the Kulahyas, the Bengalis, the Bhatias and the Shaikhras was swept away; the commitment to other political parties was forgotten in a massive, frenzied move to defeat the BJP which had won 2 Muslim majority assembly seats in 1995 Elections due to division of Muslim votes

The polarization of Hindu votes, was a natural consequence of their 'minority' status. The BJP campaign was marked by a low profile, inactivity to the point of dullness but borne on the wings of an underground 'religious' crusade symbolized by distribution of 'Supari' and Sindoor through door to door visits in the darkness of the night. The BJP also played the usual game of extending financial support to other Muslim candidates, inflating their football, wherever necessary, supplying oxygen when at the point of collapse. Ironically, the BJP also propagated its second tactical line of possible support to Shahabuddin as a good man, if Taslimuddin, the bad man, appeared to have an upper hand, thus further alienating the Muslim voters from Shahabuddin. BJP has many tricks in its bag and played all as it realized that it can only win the seat, if the Muslim vote was divided and the Hindu vote was consolidated. But Shahabuddin's defeat was its primary goal - no matter who won!

How to explain the rejection of Shahabuddin, a sitting member, by a Muslim majority Constituency in his home state? Can any general inferences be drawn from this episode?

Everyone admitted that Shahabuddin was by far the best candidate: A man of integrity, in more than 10 years of association with the people of the Constituency he had not taken a paisa from any one, neither in the name of Sifarish or Pairvi, nor as percentage or commission from contractors or engineers, nor as 'rangdari tax' or forcible donation. Shahabuddin in his parliamentary and public activities had become identified with Kishanganj and had given the people of Kishanganj an identity, a sense of pride, and brought Kishanganj international recognition and the gratitude of the entire community all over the country. Shahabuddin had not made any distinction between the Hindus and the Muslims of his Constituency. had served them all equally and treated Hindu-majority Panchayats and marginalised Hindu communities like Rajbanshis and Dalits with special care. Shahabuddin had always rushed to resolve communal situations and Hindu- Muslim disputes by timely intervention and by evolving a just and mutually acceptable solution and kept communal peace for 10 years despite all sorts of provocations by Hindu communal forces, in his Constituency, which was a special target of the Sangh parivar as a haven of Bangladeshi 'infiltrators".

Yet, Shahabuddin was rejected by the electorate. even after one, discounts the pro-JD role of the subservient district administration, particularly the RO... and the Polling Teams and the placement of chowkidars to guard sensitive booths, the large scale capture of booths and massive stamping/rigging indulged in by the workers of both the JD and the BJP candidates. This raised the poll level to an average of 60% (while no enthusiasm among the electors nor any queues in any booth were visible) and abnormally high 75% and above in a large no. of booths. The R.O. refused to disclose the number of booths with high voting level and the Observers rejected the request for their separate counting. There is also the possibility of substitution of ballot boxes and of cheating in counting.

For months before the campaign, the supporters and sympathizers of Asrarul Haque Qasmi, the Dy. S.G. of the A.1. Milli Council and Mohammad Taslimuddin, both vying for Laloo Prasad's favour had launched a whole series of lies among the people.

That he is a Panchhma, an outsider and therefore, not readily available; he is a 'Qadiani' and a 'Samdhi' of L.K. Advani!

The facts are that I do not belong to Kishanganj but have intensive contacts with the region since 1980 when I took up the case of the Bhatias for recognition as citizens that rein or shine, I have visited the Constituency for 7 days, regularly every other month, to visit any village affected by fire or flood and all development sites, to meet the people, to take note of local problems and grievances, to monitor the progress of central and state Schemes and to discuss them with the block officers (all 13 Blocks) and the district administration (3 of them). subsequently to take up in writing the petitions or applications received from individuals with the block/ district authorities, the state and the central governments. Perhaps no other M.P. has travelled as widely in the Constituency on foot, wading through streams and rivulets, on bullock carts, cycles, motor cycles and jeeps, in dust or heat. Thousands of letters from the Constituency were replied to, sometime by hand.

That no development had taken place during the last 10 years.

The fact is that the systematic approach had paid off and it was admitted that more development (keeping the financial constraints of the State Government in mind) had taken place in this Constituency in the last decade 1986-1996 than in any earlier period. Every paisa of the MP's Fund or the LDÁS grant was used beneficially. Yet no legislator, MP or MLA, can substitute for a State Government, which ever pleaded financial crisis for not meeting even the minimum needs of the people in terms of education and health, roads and bridges, relief and welfare.

That he had no time in Delhi for visitors from Kishanganj and had been rude to them.

In fact during the last 5 years, hundreds of visitors from Kishanganj were helped and assisted, even financially, if in difficulties. But some real or imaginary incidents from the past were systematically propagated. No doubt, by virtue of the status accorded by the voters of Kishanganj, I operated on a much wider horizon, responded to situation all over the country, brought out a research journal, wrote articles and letters to the editors, took up the grievances of the minorities and the other downtrodden sections, visited sites of mass violence, to the neglect of my own health and family responsibilities. I have no hesitation to admit that I had no time for gossip or small talk or for hospitality but only for business and that I do tend to lose patience. During the campaign I was touched by the voluntary declaration by various electors on the positive and fruitful help or assistance rendered by me or my office in Delhi to those who came to us with any problem.

Yet my defeat has a lesson for those for whom politics is not an end in itself, nor is a seat in the Parliament. In the present system, with a majority of the electorate being illiterate, unable to distinguish between the Executive and the Legislature and, therefore, capable of making all sorts of demands on local MP/MLA and with use of unlimited money power and muscle power during elections, it is difficult to maintain a balance between the private demands of your electors and the public demands on your time and energy as a national legislator, to benefit only the people of your Constituency and to work for the people of the country as a whole or even a section thereof, scattered throughout the country. There is a contradiction between the local role and the national role a gap it is difficult to bridge. Perhaps either you have to be in the Government (to get things done) or shift your Constituency in every election!

I lost, secondly because of my inclination to trust all those who had worked for me during the last 5 or 10years and leave the organization up to the booth level to them and my consequent inability to cope with last- minute desertion and treachery I was particularly anguished by the organized hostility of Mr. Azeemuddin, a former JD Minister, who neither supported his party candidate nor me, a family friend, but a third person! I still fail to see his logic. I had to depend wholly on strangers some of whom were double agents, most of whom were mercenaries, rejected by the JD/Congress(1) or even Mushtaq, who offered much better emoluments for election work. In any case, a few exceptions apart, there was hardly anyone local working with a commitment to the cause, like Laloo Prasad Yadav, they had all turned into 'Gowalas', out to milk the electoral machine!

As a Muslim, I believe in the Will of Allah. I worked as had as it was physically possible for me harder than in any election in the past yet I did not win. Had I won, would have thought that Allah willed me to continue to work on the parliamentary front; I have lost. Perhaps He has chosen another front for my exertions.

Yet I must admit that my faith was not strong enough. I began believing in 'omens' as sign of Divine Will, Asrarul Haque Qasmi did not the JD ticket, Md. Mushtaq did not get the Samajwadi Party ticket, the Congress party did not put up Rafique Alam but a very weak candidate; the stupid and unnecessary, perhaps malafide, objection to my voters' certificate raised by the R.O. was resolved in time, the digit 5 was particularly propitious for me!

In rejecting me, the people of Kishanganj have not covered themselves with glory, It is a disgrace for them, not for me. My rejection is my liberation from the moral bondage of commitment to them. I have before me the prospect of broadening my horizons, getting out of the narrow grooves of community (not communal) politics, striking out in a new direction and adding a fresh dimension to my experience (after all I have nearly completed 20 years in politics), perhaps taking up writing. I have been twice out of Parliament but have continued to work usefully.

But my experience has also a sad lesson for those- who are prepared to sacrifice themselves for a cause. At the end, you are alone; no one cares a dime; no one has a tear to shed, it is a thankless task; it is like ploughing in the ocean.

Yet the cause the cause of Social Justice, the Cause Equality and Dignity for All matters. Human beings situations fail, circumstances differ, but No one is the last man in History

The Battle goes on.

The Cause is Supreme.

A Just Cause will ever inspire someone, somewhere, work for it, without wanting any return, without expecting any appreciation, without asking for gratitude This is my hope.

New Delhi

10 May. 1996                                  

(SYED SHAHABUDDIN)