By Jasim Mohammad,
In the recently held assembly elections the Congress has lost heavily in four states namely Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It has shrieked much beyond the respected defeats and this situation did not arrive suddenly. It is the outcome of the short slightness of Congress itself. First of all Congress did not realize that the resentment is brewing among the deprived and marginalized classes particularly Muslims.
A balance sheet of the last five year indicates that the Congress did not act in a transparent manner to deliver the goods to its voters. Rising prices and illogical statements of the Congress leaders made matters worse. The defeat of the Congress is not the end result of the incapability of the state governments concerned, but also largely goes to the credit of the UPA government at the Centre also.
India is a secular country and its citizen are also secular by and large but when political alternative is not in sight then the masses will certainly shift their votes to someone whom they may not like. It will be surprising to note that BJP succeeded in getting Muslim votes in Rajasthan and there are reports that even in Madhya Pradesh Muslims have gone with BJP. It is a deviation from earlier stand. Though a negative one but it has happened.
In Delhi Congress could bag only 8 seats out of 70 whereas in 2008 it had 41. The BJP succeeded in grabbing 32 while in 2008 it had only 24. AAP became popular party by occupying 28 seats. There is large presence of Muslims in Delhi. Despite that BJP succeeded in making inroads.
In Rajasthan BJP got 162 seats whereas in 2008 it has only 78. The Congress which was ruling in the state with 96 seats could get only 21 seats. In Madhya Pradesh Congress won on 61 seats whereas in 2008 it has 71 seats. The BJP got 162 seats while it has 143 in 2008. In Chhattisgarh, the BJP got 49 seats in comparison to 50 in 2008 but Congress failed to cash on and got only 39 seats while it had 38 in 2008.
This was the clear political achievement balance sheet. It reveals that the Congress failed bitterly in attracting new voters while it lost its traditional vote bank like Muslims, dalits and other marginalized sections of Indian citizenry.
It may be recalled that many organizations had drawn the attention of Ashok Gehlot government towards the injustices heaped upon the Muslims but Gehlot did not acted positively. On 16 July 2013, the Forum for Muslim Studies & Analysis staged a one day dharna on Shaheed Smarak, Jaipur led by noted film director Mahesh Bhatt with a Charter of demand. It is surprising that the Chief Minister did not even granted time to the delegation of forum for receiving memorandum. Such a negative attitude cannot bring votes in a democracy to any political party. Did UPA not know anything about riots in Gopalgarh in which Muslims were killed in the mosque? Was that not a proper time to bring Anti Communal Violence Bill?
If we take the balance sheet of the UPA-II performance then it is almost nil. Except making tall promises, in fact it failed to deliver justice and goods. Though Sachar Committee was appointed during UPA-I itself but its recommendations could not be implemented on ground level and Muslims felt cheated. Union government failed to evolve any mechanism for monitoring the schemes it launched for Muslims and the result is that most of the funds were transfered to other projects and segments and could not be used for Muslim welfare.
There is another aspect also most of that UPA minister are not responsible and accountable. They shy away from meeting and do not try to solve problems of people. Union government has passed Waqf bill but it is not up to the mark and fails in achieving its goal. During the ministry allotment, OBC Muslims have been completely neglected. Even Dr. K. Rahman Khan is not a responsive minister. It may be recalled that Maulana Azad Education Foundation failed to release grants even to observe Maulana Azad birth anniversary. How can it serve the purpose for which it was created?
Since last several years there is no officials posted in National Minority Financial Corporation and the government claim on paper that minorities are being provided financial back up. It has been noted that during the last year the Congress government only played politics of data which cannot satisfy the masses at all. How can you satisfy the people in a democracy just by promises and data? They want to see the things happen and are more concerned with development than just a rosy picture. It may be recalled how the shining India concept of BJP failed earlier. There are political messages which the Congress should take up seriously and quickly.
There is another example of shortsighness of Congress. An apex body of the Muslims the Millat Bedari Muhim Committee (MBMC) Aligarh which supported the Congress in last several assembly elections and even in last parliamentary elections tried to draw the attention of Congress bosses several times to the pathetic conditions but they did not even met them. It is political blunder that Smt. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi both failed to grant time to its delegation even to hear their pleas. Ignoring such powerful organizations which have root among masses is costing Congress dearly.
Rightly or wrongly, Muslims have placed that Congress and BJP on one Platform recently and that is not a good position. Everybody knows well the agenda of BJP but how to convince masses for voting for Congress? There should be some positive point and deliverance. The height of political immaturity was the statement of Rahul Gandhi after Muzaffarnagar riot that the agents of ISI had engineered the riot. The statement hurt Muslims sentiments at all level.
India is passing through a crucial phase. Once the saffron brigade takes over the power, the situation will not be the same. India is a multi-religious, lingual and cultural country with a secular constitution. Despite that fact the masses have preferred BJP which is on the other side, bent upon to turn India into Hindu Rashtra. Modi is fast galloping to Prime Ministerial seat and if the trend goes on then nobody can stop him.
It is time for the Congress to take up corrective steps. It should involve grass-root organisations and must not depend upon selected few in Delhi to garner support of the lost Muslims. There is still time, long pending issues of the Muslims should be solved like Anti Communal Violence Bill, constituting Equal Opportunities Commission, deletion of para 3 of 1950 Presidential Order for removing religious binding for reservation and so on.
It may be noted that the Indian Muslims are Indian not by any compulsion but by choice. If India turns into a Hindu Rashtra the biggest loser will be Muslims so they are very much concerned with the political survival of the Congress but Congress itself should take up steps.
(Author is editor of The Aligarh Movement monthly. He can be reached at [email protected])