By Abhay Kumar,
Ever since Asaduddin Owaisi, president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (henceforth MIM or Majlis), addressed a well-attended public meeting in Kishanganj on August 16, speculation about his party contesting election in Bihar has been rife. According to earlier media reports, Owaisi was considering fielding as many as 25 candidates in Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region of Kishanganj, Araria, Purnia and Katihar, giving the leaders of the secular Grand Alliance jitters.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s August 16 public rally in Kishanganj
Unlike this speculation, Owaisi does not seem prepared to jump into the Bihar Assembly Elections. ‘In Bihar we are not yet ready,’ Owaisi said in an interview with The Deccan Herald recently finally clearing the air after much speculations.
Explaining the challenges that Owaisi might face, some political observers contend that given the weak organisational structure of his party in Bihar and late entry in the state, MIM is unlikely to jump into assembly election. Senior journalist and political commentator, Khurshid Hashmi says that if Owaisi had been serious about Bihar election, he would have launched his campaign much earlier as he did in UP.
JDU Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson K.C. Tyagi was cauticuous in his reaction earlier. Talking to The Indian Express (August 17), he said, “So long as Owaisi does not officially declare his candidates, we will not react.”
According to political commentators, if the MIM contests election, it may cut into Muslim votes, spoiling the game of the JDU, the RJD and the Congress, which are locked in a close battle against Modi-led NDA alliance. The secular parties have not forgotten that the MIM, on debut, not only won two seats in Maharashtra assembly election last year but also made a dent into Muslim votes in several other constituencies.
During his fiery speech, Owaisi, MP from Hyderabad, did not miss an opportunity to pull up Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD President Lalu Prasad and the Congress for the backwardness of the region. His attack on Modi came a bit late when he asked the Prime Minister to give a special package for Seemanchal region as well as the setting up of the Special Development Council.
It is to be kept in mind that the invitation to Owaisi to Bihar was given by a former RJD MLA Akhtarul Iman, who drew media attention during the 2014 Lok Sabha Election when he, as JDU candidate, withdrew from Kishanganj seat so as to prevent the division of secular votes. A year later the political equation changed so dramatically that the same Imam has now turned a bitter critic of secular forces and is now looking up to Owaisi for the revival of his fortune. Owaisi, in his address, lived up to his expectation when he hailed him as lion, asking people to choose lion over monkeys.
The competition among secular parties and the MIM lies in the fact that Muslim votes, which constitute around 16.5 per cent of population, are crucial in Bihar assembly election. As they influence the result of around 50 assembly seats, given the fact their votes constitute 15 to 25 per cent in as many as 52 seats.
MIM Headquarters in Hyderabad.
In a counter-attack on Owaisi, the secular forces have accused the MIM of dividing secular votes in favour of the BJP, alleging that MIM’s entry would facilitate the way for the BJP in the state. But the supporters of Owaisi, on the other hand, contend that Muslims can no longer be held hostage by the secular parties in the name of keeping communal forces at bay. For them, such a discourse is constructed to silence the Muslim voices about injustice. To corroborate their point, they show the abject socio-economic conditions of Muslims, despite the fact that governments claiming allegiance to social justice have been ruling the state with the support of Muslims for around two and half decades.
Historically speaking, the contestations between the MIM and the secular forces are not new. Ever since its revival in 1957, the MIM and other secular parties, including the Congress, regional and Communist parties, locked horns over their claims about who truly represents Muslims.
According to noted political scientists Javeed Alam, the Majlis-e- Ittehadul Muslimeen was set up in 1927 in Nizam-ruled Hyderabad to protect Muslims’ economic, political and educational interests. After Partition, the Majlis was banned in 1948 as the Indian Government found it guilty of waging a fight against the Indian army in its opposition to the accession of Nizam-ruled Hyderabad to India.
After a decade, the Majlis was revived in 1957 by the grandfather of Asaduddin Owaisi, Abdul Wahib Owaisi. But the ascendency of the Majlis came almost three decades later by the 1980s when Wahib’s son, Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi, also known as Sallar-e-Millat (the Commander of the community) got consecutively elected as an MP in 1984 and 1989. Meanwhile, the Majlis also won a couple of seats in the state assembly. Moreover, it also became the largest party in the 1986 Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, winning 38 seats out of 100. At present, the MIM has won one Lok Sabha seat and bagged seven and two seats in Telangana and Maharashtra assemblies respectively.
The reason why the acceptability of the MIM increased among Muslims in this period is to do with a large number of factors. Key among them is an active role of the MIM in setting up private educational institutes, particularly engineering and medical colleges, whose 80 per cent seats were reserved for non-Muslims. It is among these institutions that a small section of Muslim middle classes was produced, who had to suffer badly from Partition.
Unlike the numerical strength, it is the ideological position and party programmes of the MIM that have come in for sharp criticism from the secular parties.
While MIM’s new constitution, redrafted in 1958, swears allegiance to the Indian Constitution it, at the same time, has been criticising the institutions of the state for what it calls discrimination against the Muslims. It is interesting to note that the politics of the MIM is framed within the Indian Constitution, yet some of its demands have been interpreted by the opponents as being “divisive” and “sectarian”
According to noted scholar G. Ram Reddy, the MIM has been demanding reservations for Muslims in services, administrations, legislative assemblies and judiciary, according to the proportion of Muslims. In the sphere of culture, it has been a supporter of non-interference in Muslims Persona Law as well as in religion.
To achieve its goal, the party has primarily banked on Muslim support but it has also been able to get some backing of Dalits, who were brought within the party by giving them a “share” in power. Even during his Kishanganj speech, Owaisi referred to Dalits and backwards several times, a move aimed at widening the social base of the party.
However, the party has also been criticised for propagating “communal views” and harping on “the psychological fear of the Muslims” as a tool to maintain its hold among Muslims. That is why the group does not recognise division of Muslim community on caste, class and gender lines. Besides, the party is pulled up for remaining a “closed or pocket organization” for Owaisi family.
Despite these limitations, Owaisi has been seen as a political alternative among an increasing section of Muslims, a fact that continues to bother secular leaders of Bihar. For example, Md. Wasim from Begusarai and Md. Masoom Anis from Sitamarhi, say that Owaisi’s speeches are becoming viral among Muslims, particularly among youths.
Irrespective of whether he actually fields candidates in Bihar, one cannot deny that the appeal of Owaisi has expanded beyond Hyderabad and he now enjoys fan following in a section of the Muslim youth largely due to his own charisma and performance in the Parliament, where he is very vocal. This has offered him window of opportunity in extending his party base as well in other states, but it would be interesting to see if his own personality cult help him fly the green kite of MIM in north India too.
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(Abhay Kumar is pursuing Ph,D in Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
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