By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
They are not aware of their rights and are much backward compared to South India Muslims. However, things have begun changing of late, says Darbhanga-born, Dubai-based businessman Omar Hejazeen about Muslims in Bihar in an exclusive interview with Mumtaz Alam Falahi of TwoCircles.net.
How do you see Muslims in Bihar, your home state, from the eye of a Muslim NRI?
We have still not got our rights. We are not even aware of our rights. I feel Muslims in Bihar need to be made aware of their rights. As for our educational and economic condition we are much much backward compared to our counterparts in the southern states. In every field of socio-economic development we are lagging. We lack a lot.
Do you think the community has been discriminated by the political establishment here?
I don’t believe in the term discrimination. I think this is part of pre-planned agenda of some vested interests. When I go through the history, I see the Muslim community has been let down by political leaders and government.
As an established industrialist with businesses in several countries including Bahrain, Canada and India, do you think Indian Muslims in the last 20 years have progressed in the economic field?
Definitely, the Indian Muslims as a whole have done tremendous progress both in economy and social upliftment. But when you come to Bihar, the story is completely different.
How do you assess the JD (U)-BJP combine government of Nitish Kumar in Bihar?
I left Bihar 23 years ago, so I was not aware of things here. But when I used to be here there were lots of negative things in the state. Two months after Nitish Kumar took over as CM four years ago I met him in Hyderabad in NRI conference. He invited us to invest in Bihar. I have seen changes in the last four and half years here. I can say more or less there are positive changes. However, I am not in position to analyze the political shortcomings of the government. I do not agree with you regarding BJP as a communal party. Because when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister he was liked by Muslims also. He was the first PM to do great work for India-Pakistan relations. He has done something which I don’t think communal minded leader will do.
But how can you ignore or deny the 2002 Gujarat riots under the rule of BJP there? Muslims across the country are afraid of Narendra Modi and BJP.
Yes, I also felt scared that it might happen here also when we saw Modi in newspapers ad and when he arrived here I thought maybe he will bring the ill of the society to Bihar. But we think that Nitish Kumar is one of the most popular CMs among Muslims also.
You have opened your businesses here in Bihar also in the last four years. So how do you assess the performance of CM Nitish towards the welfare of the Muslim community?
Some of his decisions seem to be populist in nature. He has done some favors to some religious and community leaders. Or take the case of grant to madrasas which are not at par with the needs of the society. I don’t think this will benefit the community. They need socio-economic upliftment.
How did you rise from a backward district of Darbhanga to become an established businessman?
I thank Allah for what I am today. I come from a village where still we don’t have continuous supply of electricity. The village gets electricity for 2-3 hours in a week. We don’t have running water. We don’t have roads. During my school days we had to walk 3 kms to school. I did I.Sc. in Bihar and then moved to Calcutta. One of my relatives offered financial help and I did graduation from there. Then I went to Australia and did MBA from there. I also started working there but found Australians narrow minded so I moved to Singapore and worked there for three years. Then I decided to shift to Dubai because it was close to my home country and also the culture was homelike.
We have come to know you are going to launch a monthly magazine in Patna by the name of Voice of Bihar.
It will be both in Hindi and Urdu. We want people to be educated. We want to tell them the positives of the society and how they can improve their social status.
How do you view the present Urdu papers in Bihar?
Even though I am not a scholar of Urdu I do not find any quality in them. Whatever I read in these papers they seem just rubbish. They are not good for the community or Urdu speakers.
Do you see any ray of hope from Muslims in Bihar?
Things are changing here. Things are changing globally. I don’t lose hope. When I can come from a village and travel to 67 countries I have hope. I am very positive. Things will change. Our new generation is changing. When I passed class 10th there were just four students from my village. Today there are 20 students from my village in that class.