By Dr Salman Sultan, TwoCircles.net,
Azamgarh was in the forefront of first battle of Independence. Incidentally, Allama Shibli Nomani’s birth date is remembered as the day when Azamgarh Jail inmates broke open jail gates. It was 3-4 June 1857. Due to lack of industries and big commercial ventures, inhabitants of Azamgarh had not much by way of asset except their tradition of scholarship. From time immemorial Azamgarh was blessed by saints, rishis/munis and learned scholars. It believed in communal amity and people with exceptional talents were found both in Hindus and Muslims. If Azamgarh was the birthplace of Allama Shibli Nomani and Maulana Hamiduddin Farahi on one hand then it also belonged to Pandit Rahul Sankratayn and Ayodhya Singh Upadhyay “Harioudh”. A number of poets, critics, scientists, etc were born in this blessed land, which perhaps also benefited by its proximity to Jaunpur (Sharqi dynasty).
After Independence Azamgarh was either a bastion of Congress or Left-oriented political parties. It never encouraged divisiveness or partisanship. Therefore, the erstwhile Jansangh, which was reborn as BJP, never got encouragement in this region. However, it kept trying to get a foothold in this eastern region of Uttar Pradesh, which lately belonged to secular parties like SP and BSP. Muslims, in particular were the guaranteed vote bank of a political party, which talked about the interest of downtrodden people and weaker section of society. SP fielded candidates belonging to Yadav caste and with en bloc Muslim voting they were always successful. When BSP fielded Muslim candidate the vote percentage went up in combination with traditional and secure BSP vote bank. Therefore, it was easy for Akbar Ahmad “Dumpy” to get elected from Azamgarh. In the last by-election Akbar Ahmad got elected as M.P. from Sadar constituency. Though, he did not take part in parliamentary debates or ask questions, a simple symbolic protest after seemingly fake Batla House encounter put him in great trouble. Both BSP M.P.s belonging to Azamgarh were denied tickets. BSP put up Malik Masood as its candidate.
When Azamgarh people, after initial shock, got organized to protest against the Batla House incident, political parties started thinking about slipping Muslim vote bank. With the hastily formed “Ulema Council” and its protest rallies in Delhi and Lucknow, so-called secular parties got startled and could not ignore the whimper turning into cacophony. Just after Batla House incident, people not closely acquainted with the martyred boys (one of them a teenager) believed our Police doled out. Slowly, with different fact-finding reports and eyewitness versions, questions started being raised. People started doubting Police statements that kept on shifting.
In the mean time Parliamentary elections were announced and though UC was not having even a simple organizational structure, it opted for participation. In general, Muslims were fed up with so-called secular parties SP or BSP (Congress was not having a significant presence in Azamgarh) and they wanted an alternative. A good suggestion was to go for “Vote for none”. This option, however, was not easy, as EVM did not have provision for such a button. To educate masses for opting for this option required a lot of time and energy.
UC fielded an exceptionally brilliant candidate in Dr. Javed Akhtar for Azamgarh Parliamentary constituency (Sadar) and Chandu Saroj for Lalganj. Dr. Javed traveled the nook and corner of his constituency and made contact with almost all the voters irrespective of caste and creed. As a practicing orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Javed Akhtar was immensely popular among all and sundry. Non-Muslims respected him to such an extent that he was almost a deity for them.
Earlier I have interviewed Dr. JA on the penultimate day of polling and this interview was held on penultimate day of vote counting. He fetched around 60,000 votes (59270) though his election symbol “Railway Engine” looked similar to the election symbol “Road Roller” of an independent candidate. As these two symbols were adjacent this independent candidate got more than ten thousand votes. It can safely inferred that these 10K votes belonged to Dr. JA. Therefore, Dr. JA should have got more than his humble estimate of 62K. Due to incessant rumours Muslim votes got divided between SP, BSP, UC, Congress and even to BJP. The purpose of such hurriedly contested election should have also not been emphasized and propagated among the masses. The leaders could not convince Muslims towards consolidation of votes.
Azamgarh had returned Indira Gandhi through Mrs. Mohsina Kidwai after the Congress rout of 1977. Mrs. Kidwai’s election as M.P. proved the harbinger of Congress’ return from wilderness. Keeping its tradition, Azamgarh, this time has returned a BJP M.P. Mr. Ramakant Yadav. After Independence it is first time that a BJP candidate was successful.
Muslims perhaps achieved one purpose i.e. they showed the real worth of so-called secular parties like SP and BSP. It proved beyond doubt that these proclaimed champions of downtrodden people cannot succeed without support of Muslims. Muslims, by and large rejected SP and BSP candidates because they want to get rid of serfdom and they probably are disgusted with these kowtowing dummies that are worthless as far as Muslim problems/issues are concerned. They can at the most raise emotional issues like holidays on specific occasions (which serve no purpose).
UC must consider floating a separate political party after consultation with like-minded parties/groups as suggested by Dr. JA. UC should remain as a parent body having moral authority and should check activities of the nascent political party/forum. This will only be possible if UC realizes its shortcomings and invite wide ranging open discussions and infuse democratic traditions in its meetings.