By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: With Rajya Sabha election for five seats from Bihar today the political representation of state Muslims will be down a bit further as a sitting Muslim Rajya Sabha MP was not given ticket, nor did any other party field Muslim candidate. Of 16 Rajya Sabha Members from Bihar, four were Muslims. Now the number will be three.
The fall in the Muslim political representation – in the face of sitting JD-U Rajya Sabha MP Dr Ejaz Ali having been denied ticket, and no other Muslim candidate from other parties – has coincided with the Congress Party nominating party leader and MLA Mahboob Ali Qaisar as the state party chief. Though it has sent a hopeful signal to the minority for the coming Assembly elections due in October 2010, it will be too early to expect much.
For today’s Rajya Sabha election for five seats, the ruling JD-U and BJP combine had fielded three candidates – Upendra Kushwaha and RCP Sinha (JD-U) and Rajiv Pratap Rudi (BJP). Opposition RJD-LJP combine fielded Ram Vilas Paswan and Ram Kirpal Yadav. Even though the assembly elections are hardly three months away, the ruling JD-U did not bother to field a Muslim candidate when it was denying ticket to its sitting MP Dr Ejaz Ali. Why?
“Whatever Nitish Kumar says in public and though he cancelled dinner for BJP leaders, Kumar is under pressure from ally BJP. It was the BJP pressure that a Muslim candidate was not fielded in the place of Dr Ejaz Ali,” says social activist Vilayat Ali.
Ask him if Muslims in Bihar have enjoyed or are enjoying full political representation, he says: “Never, and will never.” He himself gives the reason: lack of unity among Muslims.
A section of audiance at Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind rally on Muslim reservation in Patna on 1st April 2010
As of now, interestingly, Muslims were enjoying 25% of Rajya Sabha quota from Bihar. They were occupying 4 out of 16 seats. The remaining three, after the exit of Dr Ejaz Ali, are: Ali Anwar Ansari (JD-U), Sabir Ali (LJP) and Jabir Hussain (RJD).
Other top three legislative bodies, namely Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha and Vidhan Parishad, have low presence of Muslims.
Of 40 seats of Lok Sabha in the state, only three could be won by Muslim candidates in General Elections held in May 2009. So the present representation of Muslims in Lok Sabha from Bihar is just 7.5%. The state population of Muslims is 16.5%. The sitting Muslim Lok Sabha Members from Bihar are: Mohammad Asrarul Haque (Cong, Kishanganj), Dr Monazir Hassan (JD-U, Begusarai) and Shahnawaz Hussain (BJP, Bhagalpur).
Worse is the representation of Muslims in the state Legislative Assembly that is called Vidhan Sabha. Of 243 MLAs there are only 17 Muslims, that is 6.99% of the seats. While JD-U and RJD have four Muslim MLAs each, the Congress has 5 and LJP and CPI-ML has one each. One is Independent.
Talking to TCN, Kapileshwar Ram of Dalit Adhikar Manch says the weaker sections have never got representation. If one or two members of a backward community were given public posts it was just out of political compulsion.
However, the situation is a little better in the Legislative Council called Vidhan Parishad. There are 75 Members in the Council. Muslims are 7 among them, that is 9.33%. In the first week of June 2010 election for 7 seats of the Council was held. No party had fielded any Muslim candidate except RJD which had retained its leader of the House Ghulam Ghaus. However, among the 7 Muslim Council members, a majority (4) is from JD-U. On coming July 13 again the Council will face election for 24 seats. It is to be seen if Muslim representation in the Council will go up.
More important will be the October Assembly elections to watch. Only last week JD-U leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar publicly distanced himself from BJP and Narendra Modi to an extent of humiliating the BJP leaders by canceling at last hour the dinner he was to host for BJP National Executive members. He was angry at the publication of his photo holding hand of Modi. And within hours he visited a Khanqah in the city and posed with Muslims. This all has sent a signal that he cannot afford to lose Muslim vote, but if he will field more Muslim candidates this time is a matter to be seen. Simultaneously, appointment of Mahboob Ali Qaisar as Bihar Congress chief has also increased hope of Muslims. But what actually translates on the ground is yet to be seen.
While Vilayat Ali is a little hopeful that Qaisar factor will make Muslims tilt towards Congress, Kapileshwar Ram says the Muslims will put security before anything else when they will come out to vote.