By Anjuman Ara Begum, TwoCircles.net,
The visible impact of the formation of the Muslim/minority party in Assam is that now development funds are reaching minority areas. The fear factor – if you did not vote for Congress BJP will come to power – has gone. Our party will play a key role in formation of next state government, Dr Baharul Islam, General Secretary and spokesperson for All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a leading political party led by MP Badruddin Ajmal in Assam, says in an exclusive interview with Anjuman Ara Begum of TwoCircles.net.
What is the history behind the formation of AIUDF and how do you rate its success or failure, if any?
AIUDF is basically a political expression of dissatisfaction of minorities [in Assam] in response to their systemic deprivation by successive governments led mainly by Congress even after more than 60 years of India’s independence. The major organization behind the formation of AIUDF was Jamiat Ulema. Jamiat and Congress had long tie, historically they are together since the struggle for independence days. But, in late 2005, there was a growing sentiment in Assam that under the threat to their right of citizenship Muslims in Assam voted for successive Congress governments but it failed to address the major critical issues of the community in Assam. These issues are: land rights (Patta) for the inhabitants of riverine areas (Char), rehabilitation of several past massacres ie, Nellie (1983), Bongaigaon-Kokarajhar (1994), settlement of foreigners’ issue as per Assam Accord, issue of Citizens ID Cards, implementation of The Assam District-wise Population Pattern, Reflection in Services (in class III & class IV Posts) Act,1994. Congress governments promised in their election manifesto to resolve these issues every time and failed to keep its promise. On one hand Muslims in Assam did not get its due but due to their support to successive Congress governments, an impression was created that Muslims are “Vote Banks” for the party.
Against this backdrop late Maulana Asad Madani as national President and Maulana Badruddin Ajmal as state president of Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind came together and sought to resolve these issues with Congress government headed by Tarun Gogoi in 2005. After coming to power in 2001 Congress didn’t do anything for the above issues. An ultimatum was given to Congress but there was no response from the government. So ultimately on 3 April, 2005, after state-wide mass consultations with community leaders of all affiliations and backgrounds among Muslims and other backward communities, SC/STC etc a party named Assam United Democratic Front was launched. Everybody said that it was high time to launch AUDF. There were two options available to us. One to support another major party in Assam – Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) as Congress was not listening to us. But, another option was to launch our own party as everybody took us for granted. We had seen ten years of AGP rule also, it was high time to think that we stop supporting other parties and form our own platform – a political voice – joining other deprived communities. There were 13 groups who supported the idea. So that’s how the party came into existence and we contested election within 45 days of formation of AUDF. The rest is history. In 2009 it became All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) after it participated in Parliamentary Polls in other states. We went to Panchayat polls and vote share increased and then went to parliamentary elections. There is a twist in parliamentary election too. BJP was always a fear factor – a ‘scare-crow’ for Muslims created by Congress to garner Muslim votes in its favour. Much before the Bihar experiment, a consensus was slowly developing among Muslims in Assam that the fear factor didn’t work. Congress played on such fear factors since independence. Riots after riots took place under Congress governments everywhere in India. But, after the demolition of Babri Masjid, under the watch of Congress PM Narasima Rao, Muslims have nothing to fear any more. The fear factor gone, people voted for us in large number but the whispering campaign continues “if you vote for small party or in small number BJP will win, so vote for Congress’, but it did not work anymore. In last parliamentary election we got just one MP seat but Congress lost five seats due to our presence. This propelled the flow of funds and development that we never saw in last six decades after voting for Congress – now 5 Lakhs Rupees is being given to all Madrassas, special housing scheme for minorities is launched, Medical Colleges, Universities are being set up in Muslim dominated districts. So, Congress government is now doing things that we asked for decades but it took only a political platform to compel it in doing so. This is our greatest success in last five years.
Baharul Islam
In case of Assam what is the fear factor?
Over the years congress governments have not sealed the border with Bangladesh, did not solve the ‘foreigners issue’ and today even after living in this state for more than hundred years Muslims in general are ‘suspected’ as Bangladeshi because of their language, physical appearance (Beard) or even dress. There is one issue that minorities – linguistic and religious – cannot live like a citizen in this state. Even today a Muslim is taunted as illegal migrant. Successive governments in the state or in the center (mainly led by Congress) kept the ‘foreigners issue’ hanging over us like a sword to get our votes, but showed no sincerity in resolving the issue. Added to this insult is the new growing injury that the neighboring Congress governments in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh also ill-treat the migrant workers who goes there for work (as most of them lost their land to the erosion of river Brahmaputra in Assam). The river has destroyed more than 4000 sq km of area affecting more than 5 million people over the years mostly minorities. So, the loss of the right to live with dignity as an equal citizen of India is the biggest fear factor that was politically used against the minorities in Assam.
You said rehabilitation of victims of Nellie and Bongaigaon massacres were your major issues. After election what did AIUDF do on these issues?
As soon we were in the Assembly we raised the question of compensation for Nellie victims. We were informed by the ministers that they will give Rs 50,0000 each to the Nellie victims. But we asked why this discrimination in the same country and by the same party in power. Victims of Anti-Sikhs riots in Delhi (1984) got Rs 10 lakhs as compensation but though Nellie happened a year earlier in 1983, poor victims were being offered paltry sum of Rs 50 thousand that too after 25 years of the tragedy! Are these people not ‘equal’ citizen of India or were our human lives in Assam ‘cheaper’ than in Delhi? Besides demanding due compensation and rehabilitation, we did our best to sensitize national civil society over these issues through filed visits, memoranda to Prime Minister. Shamelessly, on innumerable occasions the Ministers promised to rehabilitate the victims of Boganigaon-Kokrajhar riots (1994) within a due date but till date the people are not rehabilitated.
Are you hopeful of forming the government in the coming state election?
We are not into the making of chief ministers. But yes, we are definitely looking forward to be a part of any secular formation of the next government. Then we can bring the charter of our issues that we are struggling for like land patta, erosion displaced people, compensation etc.
What is your stand on the issues of D-voters?
The provision of putting a “D” mark (Doubtful) is not provided in Indian constitution or laws. This is ridiculous and unconstitutional. This is again a tactic to put pressure on the minority community. Ask anyone in Delhi, they don’t know what is “D-voters”? Nobody knows. Interestingly, more than 80% of such D-voters are Bengali Hindus. The politics in Assam is that Hindu migrants are refugees and Muslims migrants are outsiders. But, nobody, except AIUDF, is raising its voice against such deprivation of voting and other rights of the citizens by a whimsical action of the government. Recently, during our formal meeting with the Election Commission in Guwahati in preparation to the ensuing election in Assam we demanded that till any court of law/authority declares these “D Voters” illegal or non-citizen, they may be allowed to exercise their right to vote. No other party, including Hindu-loving party BJP, asked for the rights of these thousands of Bengali speaking Hindus in Assam who could not vote for more than 15 years now due to this D mark against their names in the electoral roll.
AIUDF is often called a party of the Muslims. What is your say on this?
We have more than 2500 elected Panchayet representatives from our party and many of them are non-Muslims. Two of our party MLAs are non-Muslims. Six of our defeated MLA candidates were Hindus indicating that while Muslims voted en-mass of the party candidates it’s their own communities who did not vote for them. But, this realization is changing. This time more candidates have applied for party nominations from pre-dominantly Muslim areas. This is a great success for us. When first time we went to vote, the popular mind of the media was that it is a Muslim political organisation. But, we don’t say that we are Muslim organization and welcome all communities and religions in our party, all communities occupy higher positions in the party structure. You see we have lots of non-Muslim candidates and they also won. Now many people are asking for AIUDF ticket. We are heading towards a BSP-like experiment in the next Assembly Election. No one thought a party like BSP with limited vote base ie, Dalits would form government with its own majority in the Assembly of the largest state Uttar Pradesh.
Do you feel discrimination as being Muslim in recruitment?
Yes, 100%. In National Rural Health Mission programme, government did not appoint proportionate number of Muslims following the Population Pattern Act. The ruling party continues to cheat us. We don’t want high positions. Let’s take the Grade IV jobs: nurses, ward boys. There are blatant discriminations against the Muslims in recruitment in Assam. Share of Muslims in jobs was 11.2% earlier, but the present Tarun Gogoi led Congress Government has brought it down to 5% in spite of the fact that 31% of population in Assam are Muslims. Recently Gogoi government made appointments in Secretariat: out of 309 clerks only 6 jobs were given to Muslims, out of 52 typists only 2 were Muslims; in Police 116 ASI were appointed of whom only 11 were Muslims. In Public Service Commission out of 29 Assam Police Service Officers only 2 were Muslims. This is how the so-called ‘minority appeasing’ ‘secular’ Congress is helping the minorities. And, what is the discrimination in education? The teacher student ratio in Muslim dominated districts is 1 teacher for 250-300 students. But look at Dibrugarh, Sivsagar, Jorhat –there is one teacher for less than 50 students.
How many women candidates your party fielded in the last election? What percentage of tickets you want to give to women in the next election?
May be around 10%. We want to give more. But the existing political system, and the socio-cultural mindset of the society don’t allow many women to come up. Women politicians are still not accepted by the society. Women from political family and lineage are at the fore front now. Moreover, escallting costs of electoral politics are also a deterrent factor. Our society is a bit hypocritical about it. Hence until and unless 33% reservation is made compulsory it is difficult for any part to put female candidates.
What about the other minority communities in Assam?
For example, see Dimasa is a very small community. They have no representation in the Assembly. There is no representation of the Garo or the Rabhas in the Assembly. We need to think about all these issues. There should be equal representation of all the communities. Begali Namasudra, Patini, Manipuri communities are also not much represented.
How do you address the social issues?
We have strong policies to deal with the social issues. But since we are not in the government, we can’t implement these. See, there are many women (from Char areas) working on the roads and construction industry in cities without any insurance. There are insurance policies for even Beedi making women in other states. Also we need to do vocationalisation of education. In Korea, 98% of 10th graders are having one vocational skill but we don’t have even 2% vocational training upto matriculate level. Hence more ‘unemployable’ graduates at a later stage – this scenario has to reverse.
What are your reflections on Sachar Committee report?
We had a big seminar and workshop on Affirmative Actions recommended by the Sachar Committer report held in Guwahati in 2009. We want access to skill education, livelihood opportunities and banking support. There are lots of potentials in business but lack of access to bank or financial aids to start business is hampering. Many banks invariably discourage loans for the Muslims through different tactics.
What are the lessons learnt by you and AIUDF in the last five years of your existence?
Lesson learnt in this span of AIUDF is the assertion of minority as an independent political identity. Minority communities were always under the fear that if Congress is not there, BJP will come and will suppress the Muslims. This fear is gone. After Babri Masjid demolition under Congress government and Godhra under BJP government, Muslims have nothing more to fear. Removing such fear-factors in politics is our great success and lesson learnt in Assam. Allocation of development funds for areas of minorities and other backward communities and formation of many special development councils are another big success.
Dr Baharul Islam: He is presently the General Secretary and spokesperson for All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a leading political party in Assam. He studied at Aligarh Muslim University, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok and University of Strathclyde (UK). He taught at several Indian and foreign universities for more than a decade and served on various UN assignments across Asia and Africa since 2003. Presently working as an international development communication expert, he joined AIUDF in 2006 and appointed as one of the executive General Secretaries of the party in 2008. He was instrumental in party’s first organizational election and its re-organisation as a national party at all India level.