By Shaik Zakeer Hussain, TwoCircles.net,
Bengaluru: Mumtaz Ali Khan was a professor of Rural Sociology in the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore, but that was until his late friend and police officer Srinivas Alva persuaded him to join politics.
He contested the assembly election on a BJP ticket, from Bangalore’s Jayamahal constituency in April 2004. Though he lost the election, he was made the Minister for Minority Affairs, Hajj and Wakf for the state of Karnataka.
Prof. Khan says he joined BJP to ‘understand why Muslims hate it’ and to work towards ‘building good relations between Muslims and Hindus.’
But nine years since, it seems he is disillusioned with the party he once termed as ‘non-communal’. He has now switched gears and has joined Former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janata Party (KJP).
In this interview with TCN, he talks about his decision to join politics, Muslim community in Karnataka, the current Assembly elections and more.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Why did you join politics?
I was absolutely not interested in joining politics, in spite of pressure on for a long period. I was a professor, a social scientist and also a social worker. I was involved in developing communal harmony among Hindus and Muslims and development of women and children through international organisations.
But a close friend of mine, who passed away recently, forced me to join politics. He said if a dedicated and honest person like you joins politics, then it would no longer be a monopoly of untrustworthy people. Secondly, I wanted to see why Muslims hate BJP. I wanted to find the inside realities, and if possible pave way for better understanding between Hindus and Muslims through a political party.
After being in BJP for nearly nine years, do you now feel Muslims perception towards against BJP justified?
Muslims were annoyed when I joined BJP, but six months down the line, they withdrew their remarks, because of my personal attachment and work for the Muslim community. BJP to start with was a good party, a party which looked different; unfortunately later on it became a party of differences. It forgot its basic principles. I have good relationships with the RSS, not a member, but some of the top RSS leaders like me, because of my research interests, because of my efforts to bring Hindus and Muslims closer and my openness, but many people who came from RSS background lost the principles of RSS; corruption became routine and slowly they started forgetting the Muslim interests and once Yeddyurappa resigned, I had no option but to go with him. At the beginning RSS was good, but later on it became corrupt.
Which period of RSS are you referring to?
RSS around 1947-48, it took a stand that under any circumstance partition should not take place. And in India, particularly the Muslim league was bent on partition. This is the two nation theory of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. But as you read the writings of Guruji Golwalkar, he seems to be non-communal; he supported common civil code, he supported conversions, the two burning issues that time. I don’t want to go too deep into the matter, but I found no problem with him. But then the incident of Babri Masjid, 2002 Gujarat, and Muslims became even more reluctant towards RSS; Islam says dushman se dosti karlo, dushmani hatao that was my intention.
What according to you are the challenges faced by the Muslim community in Karnataka?
I have written quite a few books on Muslims issues. Muslims do have problem, social and economic. No government can solve their problems, unless Muslims start to participate in government. It is proved beyond doubt by most sociologists that development is two sides, the developer and the person ready to be developed. One way effort does not help. It is unfortunate that Muslims are not generally development oriented, they look to present gains, and they don’t have a distant vision of development.
Will Muslims vote for KJP?
By God’s grace, they are thousands of Muslims joining the KJP. People are ready to vote me, because I am out of BJP and have joined KJP. Till date BJP has not given a single ticket to a Muslim.
What is the way forward for Muslims?
As a social scientist, I feel that Muslims should wake up from their slumber. Laziness has crept into society, everyone should work hard. Muslims have money for material luxuries, but not for education. In Islam it is very clear that wealth is not going to help you, it is only education. Prophet (SAWS) said to go as far as China, to acquire knowledge. Our youth power is misguided and misdirected, and women’s education is neglected. Allah will only help those, who help themselves.