By Afroz Alam Sahil, TwoCircles.net
The All India Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), a confederation of various Muslim organisations in the country, is scheduled to hold its annual elections in the coming months. But like last year, it seems that the process of election and its outcomes are far less interesting than the run-up to the elections, with politics reaching a point where the matter is likely to land up in the court.
Established in 1964, AIMMM commands a lot of respect among Muslim organisations and currently, it represents a conglomeration of about 18 Muslim organisations. In last elections, eight organisations joined the election process.
The upcoming elections will elect a new President and members of their Executive Council, the Majlis-e-Aamla. This year, two candidates–current President Navaid Hamid and former Rajya Sabha member Mohammed Adeeb–were in the list of potential candidates for the President’s post while there are 51 people in contention for the 20 posts in its Executive Council. However, the controversy around the elections started on December 3, when Mohammed Adeeb raised a number of serious questions around the election process and withdrew his candidacy. This has left only Hamid in the run for the post of President.
Calling the election process a diversion from the guidelines of AIMM, Adeeb also presented a letter written by Late Mohammed Shahabuddin when he had resigned from AIMMM in February 2017, which, Adeeb alleged, had been hidden by the President of AIMMM.
During his press conference, Adeeb attempted to show several alleged discrepancies that had been allowed in the organisation. He said that during the last meeting of Majlis-e-Amla when he filed his candidacy, there were 202 members. But after that, the number of members went up to 216 without any explanation. It is important to point out here that members of the AIMMM are sent ballot papers by post which they must stamp and send back by post by December 30. The counting is scheduled to take place on December 31.
The third allegation made by Adeeb was regarding the Election Returning Officer Rashid Ahmed Khan (Former Secretary, Bihar government). According to Adeeb, Ahmed is not a member of Majlis-e-Amla.
The fourth and final allegation made by Adeeb pertained to the steps taken by the AIMMM in light of the worsening condition of Muslims in India. He alleged that instead of taking action to rectifying the same, AIMMM indulged in inviting IB Officers for visits along with meeting National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
In response to Adeeb’s allegations, former National Secretary, Congress (Minority Cell, Anees Durrani has now sent a legal notice to AIMM asking it to answer the charges raised by Adeeb. However, members of AIMMM said they had not received any such notice.
“I have sent a legal notice to AIMMM and they must answer the questions raised within three days. If they fail to do so, I shall take the matter to court,” said Durrani in a conversation with TwoCircles.net.
When asked why a legal notice was sent to AIMMM which is not a registered organisation, Durrani added, “I have checked with legal experts on this matter and the Court has the power to put a stay on the elections.”
In a conversation with TwoCircles.net, Adeeb said that he now wished to stay away from Muslim organisations. “All these organisations collected money to work for their vested interests…none of them is interested in working for their community,” he said. “I did not want to contest the elections…when Zafarul Islam Khan, the current Chairperson of Delhi Minorities Commission approached me, I refused initially. But when he said that the Jama’at will support you, I agreed,” he added. Adeeb also said that unless the elections are conducted in a free and fair manner, he would not participate in the process and will instead prefer to resign from AIMMM.
All charges made by Adeeb, and subsequently Durrani, were dismissed by Hamid, the current President of AIMMM. Talking about the letter of Late Syed Shahabuddin, Hamid said, “The letter from Late Syed Shahabuddin reached us on February 12 following which a General Body meeting was called on February 13. This letter was not only presented at the meeting, but we also debated over it for over an hour. A resolution was passed following the debate, which is available on our site. In reality, someone had fed wrong information to Shahabuddin and the letter was based on the same wrong information.”
Regarding the allegations of increased members, Hamid said that between October and November 2015, Zafarul Islam Khan had added nine members. After the recent meeting of Majlis-e-Amla, 14 more people were added as members. “These are all people who have an important role in their societies,” Hamid added.
When asked about the issue of Rashid Ahmed Khan and his post of Returning Officer, Hamid said, “When Mohammed Adeeb lost the elections in 2015, Khan was the returning officer. Why did he not raise this issue that time? In fact, Zafarul Islam Khan had appointed Khan as the Returning Officer that time…this time, he has been accorded that position by Majlis-e-Amla.”
Hamid also said that contrary to Adeeb’s allegations, AIMMM had in fact, criticised all actions that seek to tarnish the secular and democratic fabric of the country. “I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July 2017 on behalf of AIMMM, following which we were called for a meeting by the PMO. We were also asked to meet NSA advisor Ajit Doval, and a delegation from AIMMM did the same. If someone has not been kept a track of AIMMM’s works for two years, what can we do?” he asked.
Importantly, last year too the election process of AIMMM garnered much publicity albeit for mostly wrong reasons. Allegations of corruption, favouritism and muscle-power abounded and were confirmed by many members of the AIMMM.