Writes MP Asaduddin Owaisi, says all Muslims should come under an umbrella of a single political party which represents them and defends minority rights
I am of the view that BJP is a majoritarian party. Definitely there is an attempt for a majoritarian form of democracy over participatory form. It raises our anxieties because we have witnessed what happened in neighbouring Sri Lanka where Sinhalas have put in place a majoritarian form of democracy.
[BARABANKI, UTTAR PRADESH FEBRUARY 28: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi formally kicked off his partys campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with a road show. (Photo by Deepak Gupta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)]
Will Modi rise up to the occasion? He has been a pracharak of RSS right from his younger days. During his first speech in Central Hall of parliament, he referred to Deen Dayal Upadhaya.
But what about his theory of integral humanism in which he said Muslims cannot be trusted. The RSS ideology is clearly divisive. You judge a person by his past. Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi during his campaign talked about the Gujarat model of development.
Can one say the development in Gujarat has been inclusive? If that is the case then why is it that the metro line has stopped just before Juhapura in Ahmedabad, dominated by Muslims?
In Ahmedabad you have the gas pipeline which does not pass through Juhapura. Why is Modi opposing pre-matric scholarship to minorities of Gujarat? Why did you bring in legislation making it mandatory for a person who wishes to change his religion to seek the government's permission?
Thankfully the Governor did not give her assent. On the day the results were out, the Supreme Court exonerated all those boys implicated in Akshardham case. The boys lost their precious 11 years of life and the apex court criticised the non-application of mind by the Home Minister of Gujarat and state government.
During the election campaign, the PM-designate said only those people who perform Durga Puja will be allowed to stay in West Bengal and rest will have to leave.
I don't agree with the view that both Atal Behari Vajpayee and L K Advani had reached out to the minorities. How can we forget what happened to Graham Staines. It was during Vajpayee as Prime Minister and Advani as Home Minister and Lok Sabha member from Gujarat that the state witnessed 2002 riots.
It is up to the country to ponder why an Imran Masood makes an incendiary speech and loses the elections and Giriraj Singh says the same and wins. You don't have a single Muslim MP in UP, which has 18 per cent Muslims.
Why is it that in Tamil Nadu and Odisha, each of which has 10 percent Muslims, the BJP is not doing well and in Assam where the Muslim population is 17 per cent the BJP is doing extremely well.
Clearly it is because of the communal polarisation in Bihar, UP, West Bengal and Assam. Where the Muslim population is more than 15 to 16 percent, BJP has made significant gains. Of the 448 candidates of the BJP not even a single Muslim got elected. Poster boy Shah Nawaz Hussain lost from Bhagalpur where Muslims constitute 18 per cent.
This time there were 21 Muslim MPs and they won not because of their respective party base but because of the substantial presence of minorities in their constituencies. There were 36 Muslim MPs in 2004, which went down to 28 in 2009 and now in 2014 it is just 21.
Look at the representation of Brahmins, Kshatriyas and OBCs. They have more representation than their population size.
In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, including Telangana, and Maharashtra, which together have 118 seats, I am the only Muslim MP. Clearly secular parties did not transfer their votes to Muslim candidates.
All Muslims should come under an umbrella of a single political party which represents them and defends minority rights. Secular parties have failed to transfer their votes to Muslim candidates.
Whether Muslim League, MIM or AIUDF, it is time to have your own party. It is our responsibility to ensure that RSS ideology does not get ascendency in our country. But we are not the torchbearers of the movement for defeating the BJP. You cannot put the entire responsibility on me. I am not a coolie of secularism.
Now let us become the masters of our own destiny since all secular parties together have brought in a hardcore RSS pracharak as Prime Minister.
[Asaduddin Owaisi is Hyderabad MP and president of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.]
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