I am really very much surprised to learn through the Radiance Viewsweekly that a veteran politician like Syed Shahabuddin, who has scarified almost everything for the cause of Muslims, thinks that if greater numbers of Muslims are elected in Assemblies and Parliament on the tickets of different parties, the Muslims in India would become more powerful. They can only become powerful if they come with a mandate of Muslims. Who knows better than Mr. Shahabuddin about the state of affairs of Muslims in India for the last 60 years? I would like to remind him of the time when the number of Muslim Members of Parliament was around 50 during the regime of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Muslims were treated most mercilessly and two anti-Muslim riots were taking place daily.
Muslims can only become powerful if they stand united. The Muslims who get elected on the tickets of different political parties are not representatives of Muslims. As a matter of fact they are Muslim servants of those parties who give them tickets at a very high price. I do not mean that Muslims necessarily have their own party but they must have their own leadership. If their leadership decides to support a party and/or certain candidates then that party or the candidates will be considered supported by Muslims. Only in that case Muslims can dictate their terms.
I remember very clearly the days when Mr. Syed Shahabuddin was contesting from Kanpur. I was there on the day of election. Mr. Shahabuddin had ample support from the masses and he was definitely a winning candidate there but he was thoroughly ditched by the administration of that area. Even today it is very easy for anybody to harm any Muslim individual or Muslim institution, because we do not have any leadership who can fight for us with a certain amount of confidence that he is supported by a group of people.
The sooner we organise ourselves the better. All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat is capable to do it; please go ahead, InshaAllah Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala will support you.
Mushir Ahmad
Dodhpur, Aligarh