Pathetic Plight of Muslims in electoral
politics of Madhya Pradesh
By Pervez Bari
Muslims have not, in comparison to their demographic strength, been adequately represented in Parliament or most of the state assemblies. Madhya Pradesh state is no exception to this phenomena.
India's democratic system allows all citizens to contest elections if they fulfill certain conditions. Certain constituencies, however, are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes because of their high numbers in those constituencies. This reservation was meant to empower them politically. According to a study, conducted by Delhi's Hamdard University through Prof. Iqbal Ahmed Ansari five years back, many of these constituencies actually have a Muslim majority. This denies Muslims the opportunity to contest elections from constituencies where they are most likely to win, the study states.
The study also alleges that political parties have been prejudiced when it comes to naming Muslims to represent them in the electoral fray. They believe that Muslim candidates will lose in areas with a Hindu majority. This fear has increased after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. The study found the Congress party to be the worst offender in this matter as it tends to practice soft Hindutv in the face of hard-core Hindutv indulged into by the saffron forces.
Such is the scenario in the poll bound Madhya Pradesh, where according to 2001 census figures, Muslims constitute 6.4 per cent of the state population who can influence the outcome of results in over five dozen constituencies if they exercise their franchise right and cast their votes diligently keeping the communities’ interests uppermost in mind. This is possible as Muslims in over 63 constituencies have electorates ranging from 10 to 50 per cent.
These constituencies as per 2003 assembly elections are Jaora, Burhanpur, Bhopal (three seats), Indore (four seats), Mhow, Sironj, Shajapur, Agar, Khandwa, Shujalpur, Neemuch, Mandsaur, Khargone, Jabalpur Central, Sunser, Sanchi (SC), Sehore, Gulana, Mungaoli, Berasia, Dhar, Seoni, Dewas, Dharampuri (ST), Ashta (SC), Ratlam Rural, Jawad, Lashkar West, Shivpuri, Patharia (SC), Panna and Deotalab (SC), Amanganj (SC), Pawai, Udaipura, Alot (SC), Garoth, Sheopur, Sarangpur (SC), Ratlam Town, Manasa, Raghogarh, Chhatarpur, Murwara, Keolari, Barghat, Budhni, Govindpura, Bareli, Kurwai (SC), Rajgarh, Ujjain North, Sonkatch, Bagli, Nimarkhedi, Maheshwar (SC), Kasrawad, Sendhwa (ST) and Badnawar. If a Muslim candidate is put up by Congress, which is the only major national party to give tickets to Muslims as Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), rarely entertains them, from these constituencies then there is a fair chance for him to be elected. However, Congress does not concedes ground and gives tickets to just half a dozen or even less Muslim candidates now. Such is the case this time round also.
A look at the last 2003 Vidhan Sabha elections in Jaora, Burhanpur, Bhopal (North) constituencies having Muslim population of 50, 49 and 33 per cent the difference of votes secured between the winning and runner-up candidates was 6707, 4213 and 7708 respectively when only nearly 35 per cent cast their votes while about 65 per cent Muslims did not exercise their franchise rights and abstained from it. If these 65 per cent Muslim electorates had used their voting rights then the margin of difference between the candidates coming first and second in the battle of ballot would have been 40569 (27.8 per cent) and not just 6707 (5.8 per cent) votes in Jaora constituency where Muslim community votes is 50 per cent, which is the highest in the state. The glaring difference of untapped 22.8 per cent in victory and defeat in Muslim dominated constituencies can be decisive in their favour if only Muslims take up their right of franchise seriously and not just fritter it away keeping aloof from the prevailing hostile environment.
There was a time till the eighties when Congress, in undivided Madhya Pradesh before Chhattisgarh state was carved out of it in 2000, in the House of 320 used to grant tickets to more than a dozen Muslim candidates in the Vidhan Sabha and at least put up two out of 40 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. In 1980 as many as 16 Muslims were fielded in the state legislative assembly polls by it of which five were successful, but over the years the number has dropped to less than half a dozen while in the parliamentary elections Muslims’ names have vanished from the Congress list of candidates since then.
It may be pointed out here that the Madhya Pradesh assembly that was constituted in 1993 did not have a single Muslim MLA while prior this in 1990 Vidhan Sabha elections a lone Muslim had entered the House that too on a BJP ticket. In the ensuing elections Congress has given ticket to five Muslims and left one seat for one sitting Muslim MLA from the Nationalist Congress Party.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party has fielded 16, which is the highest number by any recognized and registered party, and Bahujan Samaj Party 12 Muslims to try their lucks at the hustings.
Senior Congress leader Ghufran Azam, a former Member of Parliament, who was a force to reckon with in the late seventies and eighties because of his proximity with late Sanjay Gandhi, feels that Muslims were not fielded even if they were ready to fight the polls. "There is no dearth of winnable Muslim candidates but rarely do they get the ticket," he laments.
Noted Urdu poet Manzar Bhopali avers: "There is undoubtedly a sense of alienation among Muslims as they feel the Congress has exploited them without giving them ample representation".
Madhya Pradesh Muslim Vikas Parishad, (MPMVP), president Mohammad Mahir, who is a staunch Congress activist and a former Corporator, while expressing his dissatisfaction over under representation of Muslims says: "The Congress didn't allow Muslim leaders to develop even in places like Indore and Jabalpur that have a large Muslim population. We are worried because our civil liberties are being restricted across the country. We are often looked at with suspicion, but the Congress isn't bothered about our uplift".
Meanwhile, Muslims of Meo community, a backward community in the State having a total population of about 32 lakh, have threatened not to vote Congress but to cast vote en masse for other party candidates as Congress did not give ticket to their community member for the Assembly elections. The Meo community dominates in Mandsaur, Kannod, Dewas, Khategaon, Jaora, Ratlam, Narsinghgarh, Susner, Agar and Bagli.
Claiming that a sizeable population of the Meo Muslims was centered in Bhopal and adjoining districts, Madhya Pradesh Meo Muslim Sangharsh Samiti president Abdul Hafiz says traditionally Meo Muslims were Congress supporters “but our demand put up before Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul was not heeded to”.
"We will support a candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party or any Independent, but will not support Congress candidates in any constituency in the State," Hafiz says. "We may even consider to support the BJP, if its candidate suits us," he adds.
Meanwhile, the All India Tanzeem-e-Ahle Sunnat has advised Muslims to cast their votes very carefully. Mufti Mohammad Rais Ashraf Naiem says that only that political party has right to demand votes of voters of their religion, which has given 25 per cent representation to Muslims. He added that in some parties representation of Muslims has reduced to 2 per cent.
Mufti Naiem claims that even now first choice of Muslims is Mulayam Singh Yadav. He reasoned that security of life and valuables of Muslims is possible only in Yadav's rule. Appreciating Samajwadi Party, he says that it is a secular party in which interests of Muslims and other castes can be safeguarded.
Meanwhile, in Bhopal teams of educated youth under the leadership of socialite Agha Abdul Qayyum have started door-to-door campaigning in favour of the BJP candidates. It appears so that Muslim community is shedding its inhibition from BJP on the initiative of its youths. It seem apparently that socialites like Agha Abdul Qayyum have succeeded in convincing the community.
Abdul Qayyum says, "If we want to know someone better we would have to go near him; we would have to be part of it." And the trick has worked which was evident during the campaigning by the Muslim youth teams that also included community elders.
The teams comprising of educated community members reached densely-populated Muslim areas and talked to the community members. Though there was some resentment initially, but when the teams convinced the people about the BJP policies and its ideology, they listened enthusiastically to the teams.
The team members put a few questions to the community, which included: What has the Congress given to them since independence? The Congress says if the BJP comes to power, it would destroy them. Did it happen during the five-year rule of the BJP in Madhya Pradesh? How many riots has the Congress given to the community during its 50-year-rule in the country? Who was responsible for Bhagalpur, Meerut, Moradabad and Bhiwandi riots? How much representation has the Congress given to the community in Parliament and Assemblies? What has the Congress done to educate the community members? What has the Congress done to uplift the community, except for exploiting it to use as a vote bank?
The teams made it clear to the community that it was the Congress that had created a bugbear of the BJP for its own benefits. How far the efforts of a handful youth turn into votes on the polling day of November 27, 2008 remains to be seen.
However, the Muslim supporters of the BJP fail to remember that since it came to power in 2003 the number of communal riots that have taken place all over the Madhya Pradesh is about 170 wherein there was loss of several lives and properties worth crore of rupees, many of which was state-engineered, it has been alleged. They also conveniently ignore the fact that BJP has not given ticket to a single minority community, let alone a Muslim.
Meanwhile, for the first time 10 Christians are contesting in state elections in Madhya Pradesh. One of them is Xavier Meda, a tribal Christian who is trying to get elected in the Jhabua district.
“Incidents caused by Hindu fundamentalist violence against Christians are routine in Jhabua,” Xavier Meda reportedly said.
“I have two small children and the future of our young generations needs to be secured. The majority community treats tribal Christians with scorn and disdain and this has to end. For this to happen we must have our own voice in the [state] assembly to seek justice and rights for Christians, not only in Jhabua but throughout Madhya Pradesh and across the whole of India. This is one of the priorities in my election manifesto,” Meda asserted.
The Madhya Pradesh Isai Mahasangh (MPIM) made Meda’s candidacy and that of nine other Christians possible. He is also the organization’s deputy chairman.
According to Bhopal-based Fr. Anand Muttungal, a spokesman for the local Bishops’ Conference and MPIM’s current coordinator, MPIS is not a political party but a group of good people having an active interest in politics. Among them are people who are sensitive to a secular approach to politics. Hence, the group “short-listed candidates for nomination, asking they be given a chance to run in the Assembly elections”, he says.
Fr. Muttungal says that last year alone there have been 35 serious incidents of violence against the Christian community. These do not include minor things like harassment, beatings, attacks against churches or false accusations against Christian workers,” he explains.
The plight of Muslims would continue to be pathetic as far as their representation is concerned in the new Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly when it is constituted. It is unlikely that their number of 14-15 MLAs, proportionate to their population of 6-4 per cent, would ever be elected in the ensuing elections to give a collective thought to ameliorate the conditions of Muslim community which is not up to the mark at all in the state.
All said and done it remains to be seen as to what awaits the minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, in Madhya Pradesh after December 8, 2008 when the results are out and the new government takes over following the completion of the ongoing electoral process. (pervezbari@eth.net)