Elections or transfer of powers in any country is indeed an event of great of importance. Particularly in a plural or multi-cultural society like India elections become an edgy thing because every party tries to woo different communities at the time of elections so as to receive votes. Muslims, being the largest minority, hence are wooed vociferously before the elections and political parties in India come up with promises for their welfare and development. As the elections are due in the next 18 months, the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind organised a talk, followed by question and answer session on “Current Political Situation and Muslims” at its headquarters in the Capital on November 10.
Engineer Mohammad Saleem, Secretary JIH, presented the grim reality prevailing in the country. “Post-Emergency BJP came to the forefront; however no political party has succeeded in winning the trust of Muslims since then,” he said. The two major parties in India are Congress and BJP and in fact both have failed to deliver when it came to meet the needs and requirements of Muslims. “BJP is like an open enemy and Muslims avoid voting for it, but Congress, which Muslims continuously voted for in the past, also remained aloof from the needs of the Muslims,” he added.
Besides the major parties, there are other regional parties in India, like DMK, SP, BSP, JD(U), etc., which have their influence in particular regions only. Engineer Saleem shrugged off the idea of the rise of the Third Front as a power to reckon with and said, “People do not trust the Third Front and it seems that people will not get any option where they can put their trust.”
He lamented the fact that all the recommendations and demands of Muslims are not dealt with sincerity and they remain unheard. Among the many demands which the government refused even to listen to is the probe into the Batla House encounter. The menace of illegal arrests is on the surge and though it has been proved that in most of the cases innocent youths are framed by the intelligence and police officials yet the government is not paying any heed or taking any action that would put an end to it. “Even the secular parties do not feel hesitant in employing communal politics to garner votes,” he lamented.
Before the election all political parties, in their manifestos, come up with the solution of the problems of Muslims and assure people that once they are in power all their miseries and worries will be alleviated. However, when they come to power they also act in the same way as that of their predecessors and their actions reflect nothing that was once mentioned in the manifestos.
“The example of this can be seen in the recent elections in UP where Samajwadi Party emerged as victorious and the sole reason for its win was the support of the Muslims. SP also promised that it would work for the development of Muslims and release all those innocent Muslim youths who are languishing in jails for quite a long period of time, however one can ascertain the efficiency of SP from the fact that in the past eight months nine riots have taken place and in all those riots Muslims remained at the receiving end and suffered huge monetary losses,” he said.
“At the national level all political parties are highly irresponsible. All see Muslims as a large chunk of people who are nothing but a large vote bank for them and they can be used and exploited at the time of elections by coming up with certain welfare schemes and programmes,” he said. People are left with no choice and are forced to vote for any one party. For example, in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, Muslims have only two choices i.e. they vote for either Congress or BJP. The big question is what if both of them are corrupt and insincere in their efforts.
It must be noted that all major setbacks for Muslims came at the time when Congress was ruling. Demolition of Babri Masjid, flaring up of communal riots, introduction of draconian laws, illegal picking up of Muslims, etc., all took place during the time of Congress rule. As a result of this Muslims have awakened from their slumber and they are getting united to put pressure on the political parties to bargain for their welfare and development. People are coming up with new ideas and as a result of this Peace Party was formed which achieved satisfactory result in the past, however with the recent defection of its members to SP its future lies in lurch.
As a solution to the current political crisis, Engineer Saleem called for a strong ideology and vision. “Unless you have a strong ideology and vision behind any action and you have good and morally sound people heading the action, nothing will be done,” he said. There is a need for a value-based party and an experiment has been done in the form of Welfare Party of India. He further said, God-consciousness is the only thing that would end corruption in the country.
He said it is high time Muslims realised that they cannot be mere spectators and should come at the forefront to take the struggle forward. Today people are forming agendas for us on behalf of us but it is we who should be joining the upper echelons of decision and agenda making. “We should also expose the fact that the problems like inflation, reduction in subsidy, etc., that are plaguing the country now are because of the culture of capitalism,” he added.