By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: Muslims in Maharashtra are not happy with the ruling Congress and NCP alliance, for its failure in addressing issues of concerns to the community. Muslim community leaders have started thinking about another viable political alternative. There are strong indications that that Maulana Badruddin Ajmal will soon launch a political party in the state.
A viable political alternative in Maharashtra was the main issue for discussion in the meeting called by Farid Shaikh, Haroon Mozawala, Maulana Mahmood Daryabadi, Dr. Azimuddin Khan, Yunus Manyarbrain at Islam Gymkhana, Marine Lines in Mumbai on November 11, 2008.
In this meeting the intellectuals, scholars and activists across the socio political spectrum of Muslim community were invited.
More importantly the organizers invited Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, the founder president of Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) to present his own experiences of participating in democratic and electoral politics of Assam and his management of AUDF in such a successful way.
AUDF was formed in October 2005 in Assam just days before Assam Assembly election. It surprised everyone by winning 10 out of 126 assembly seats, 48 district council members, and more than 2000 panchayat representatives across Assam.
The organizers urged Maulan Ajmal to launch the AUDF in Maharashtra after the successful experiences in the political landscape of Assam.
This invitation was the beginning of that project which has been a continuous demand by quite a few eminent persons and organizations of Maharashtra.
The participant discussed the attitude of pathetic indifference adopted by the state government towards the out break of various communal riots in Dhulia, Yawatmal, Pusad and Digris, suicide of farmers across the state particularly in Vidharba region, the rampant corruption across the state, incompetence of the investigative agencies to solve the bomb blasts and the arrest and torture of innocent Muslim youths following different blasts and so on.
Maulana Badruddin Ajmal presented his views of how to approach the issue of political alternative in a secular, democratic and electoral framework.
What all the participants agreed on is the fact that there is an urgent need to establish a secular democratic and political alternative to the BJP and the Congress led alliances.
TwoCircles.net talked to Dr. Baharul Islam, the general secretary and spokesperson of AUDF on the issue of the launch of the party in Maharashtra. He said that “it is in the pipeline.”
According to one of the participants MB Qasmi, manager Markazul Maarif who talked to TwoCircles.net, Maulana Ajmal, highlighting his own his experiences of democratic politics in Assam pointed out that any political alternative can not be established only for a particular religious community (in this case Indian Muslims).
He argued that it will motivate the communal forces and will provide them with the opportunity to rationalize their politics of hatred. And this will eventually end up harming the interests of the country.
So any kind of political alternative must be for all the marginalized sections like dalits, religious and linguistic minorities, OBCs and other groups who are at the periphery in the socio political power structure of the society, he reportedly argued.
The matter of AUDF’s launch in Maharashtra came up in the meeting. All the participants agreed verbally that they are with the political party under the leadership of Maulana Ajmal.
Maulana Ajmal stressed on the fact that the socio-political scenario of Assam is completely different from that of Maharashtra so nothing can be done in a hurry.
He suggested that instead it would be a good idea to consult all the people in Maharashtra and take their support for this ambitious but urgent project.
So it was decided by the consensus among all the participants to organize a state level conference on November 30, 2008 in which people from the whole Maharashtra will be invited. All the marginalized sections like Dalits, linguistic and religious minorities, OBCs, and all those who are against the politics pursued by the mainstream political parties like Congress, the NCP and the saffron parties will be invited in this convention.
MB Qasmi told TwoCircles.net that it hasn’t yet been formally announced in the media but looking at the general mood of the people against the mainstream political parties it is very likely that AUDF will be launched in Maharashtra in the wake of coming general election.
Hundreds of Muslim intellectuals and scholars attended the meeting prominently among them were Maulana Sayid Qadiri, Sirajuddin Ajmal, Mufti Ismail from Malegaon, advocate Mubin Sowalkar, Maulana Mustaqeem Azmi, Maulana Athar and Maulana Ejaz Kashmiri.