Party Over?

Their agenda was defiantly populist: active political participation for Muslims, the status of Urdu, minority status for the Aligarh Muslim University and reservations in government jobs.

As Jawad said, 8216;8216;If seven per cent Yadavs and 12 per cent Dalits can rule the state, why not the Muslims, who constitute 23 per cent of Uttar Pradesh8217;s population?8217;8217;

With the state assembly elections due early next year, and the AUDF enshrined as an inspiration, Jawad8217;s optimism is perhaps plausible. But possibly more significant than the electoral prospects of the new party is its success in making the ulemas and the religious clergy take the initiative8212;the first ever in the state8212;in consolidating Muslims on a common platform.

Shows of Strength

BUT will the state8217;s Muslims, the bulk of whom continue to champion the 8216;secularist8217; Mulayam Singh Yadav, rise to the occasion? Jawad would like to think so. 8216;8216;The Muslims need a platform for demanding their rights. But, more importantly, so long as the religious clergy refrain from entering active politics, it will continue to be dominated by leaders who use Muslims as a vote bank during elections and then turn their backs on them,8217;8217; he says.

Interestingly though, the PDF8217;s ideal, the AUDF, refuses to acknowledge they are a Muslim party. 8216;8216;In two constituencies Hojai and Raha, non-Muslim AUDF candidates have won,8217;8217; says Badruddin Ajmal, president of the party that almost dislodged the Congress from power in Assam. 8216;8216;The AUDF is a front to consolidate all forces subscribing to the fundamental values of our Constitution.8217;8217;

So is the PDF merely indulging in wishful thinking by basing its formation on the February 19 show of strength? It could appear to be so, especially when one considers that a similar rally held in Lucknow on March 3 by the little-known All-India Muslim Mission also drew a mammoth crowd.

Perhaps more significantly, political situations in Assam and Uttar Pradesh vary widely. Second, the Muslim population in the north-eastern state is far smaller than in UP, which may go a long way in explaining Ajmal8217;s success in consolidating the Muslim vote on a single issue.

In comparison, in UP, Muslims have always voted for the secular party which they considered the 8216;8216;lesser evil8217;8217;, irrespective of all issues except for the demolition of the Babri Masjid. That is why Mulayam8212;still capitalising on having saved the mosque from demolition while CM in 19908212;continues to be considered the messiah of the Muslims, despite having done little for their uplift.

Wake-Up Call

FROM the national perspective, few observers are ready to give the PDF the time of the day see box, Up for Grabs. 8216;8216;Such formations are often driven by vested interests and serve no major purpose,8217;8217; says Eshanul Haq, professor with the Centre for the Study of Social Sciences at JNU.

8216;8216;At the same time, this trend is a warning to the national parties. Members of the minority community are feeling neglected by the national groups; that gives an impetus to the formation of such groups.8217;8217;

That is precisely the lacuna the CPM-led Left in Kerala has been quick to identify and fill. In the recent assembly elections, the Front grabbed about seven per cent more of the community8217;s votes in Muslim-dominated areas. It8217;s a major departure for the Kerala CPM, from dubbing almost every Muslim formation 8216;8216;communal8217;8217; in 1997, to covertly roping in extremist groups like the PDP and the Jamaat-e-Islami in 2006.

Undoubtedly, the Left capitalised on a Muslim League rapidly losing local credibility and relevance. But more significantly, it managed to appear to be championing the crucial pan-Islamic concerns that have a major resonance in the Muslim heartland of Malappuram.

Actually, the PDF could have a crucial lesson to learn from the League8217;s failures in Malappuram. With its two-third Muslim population, the district is the largest exporter of Malayali labour: Out of 1,838,478 Malayalis in the Gulf in 2004, 2,71,787 were from Malappuram. This has multiplied affluence, increased access to education and had obvious impact on perceptions.

In this radically changing milieu, the Kerala Muslim League is patently obsolete. At one end of its leadership spectrum is Panakkad Syed Mohammed Ali Shihab Thangal, its political and spiritual supremo who still has people queueing up at his residence to receive the 8216;miracle-cure8217; water he dispenses for illnesses. At the other is P K Kuhalikutty, who is embroiled in a huge sex scandal.

Tied UP in knots

HOURS after being formed, the PDF said it would support any political party and would also field its candidates in around 145 Muslim-dominated assembly constituencies. Days later, they themselves have confused the situation by including several issues8212;from power-sharing to reservation in government jobs8212;in the Front8217;s agenda.

More importantly from the point of view of Muslims emerging as a composite whole, politically, is the lack of support for the PDF among the ulemas and the religious clergy. Most, in fact, have rubbished the concept of such a political front, holding that a division in the Muslim vote would help the Bharatiya Janata Party, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

which has been desperately trying to whip up majority sentiments by raising the bogey of Muslim appeasement and Hindu narsanghar slaughter in UP.

Contends Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahali, Naib Imam of Aishbagh Idgah and founder of socio-economic Muslim forum 8216;Majlis-e-Shoora8217;, 8216;8216;India is a secular country and the religious leaders should have no role in politics. The announcement of the PDF ulemas to field their candidates in the assembly elections will benefit the BJP as the division in Muslim votes will become more pronounced. Besides, what support base do the Muslim political parties in the Front have?8217;8217;

That8217;s a potent question. Indeed, the electoral track record of the PDF constituents8212;the National Loktantrik Party, the Muslim Majlis, the Indian National League, the Momin Conference and the All India Muslim Forum8212;is dismal. 8216;8216;Leave alone winning elections, none of their members has been elected chairmen of corporations,8217;8217; points out Rasheed.

While Rasheed does not support ulemas dabbling in politics, Maulana Tauqeer Reza Khan Barelvi, chairman of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board Jadeed subscribes to the opposite view. But even he criticises the PDF, alleging that its members were in politics for personal gain, not community welfare.

Incidentally, the PDF seems to have run into rough weather even before it can take off: The Shahi Imam of Delhi8217;s Jama Masjid, Maulana Ahmed Bukhari, who was described as 8216;8216;backing8217;8217; the Front, has denied any such role on the grounds that it was 8216;8216;premature8217;8217;. It8217;s another matter that he has called an independent meeting on June 10 in Delhi, where it is widely speculated he will float a parallel front.

This is one party that seems to have broken up even before it got going.

LEADING FROM THE FRONT

BADRUDDIN AJMAL

THE present address of the 51-year old 8216;8216;philanthropist, scholar and industrialist8217;8217; Md Badruddin Ajmal Al-Qasimi is 61-B, Maker Tower, Cuffe Parade, Colaba, Mumbai. But he belongs to Hojai in Assam, a town dominated by Bengali Hindu migrants of East Bengal/East Pakistan origin. The town is globally important because it controls the million-dollar international dealings in agar perfume, in which Ajmal himself is the most important player.

Apart from being a director of the Ajmal Group of Companies, Badruddin is president of the Assam chapter of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and the All Assam Tanzim Madaris-e-Qumia, and holds at least three other significant posts, besides running his own NGO.

MAULANA KALBE JAWAD

A LEADING Shia cleric and Imam-e-Juma of the Asafi mosque, he was at the vanguard of anti-Bush protests in Lucknow and elsewhere. Before floating the PDF, he was known to be a staunch supporter of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. The same is true of his PDF colleague, Maulana Fazle Rehman Waizi Nadwi. The Imam of Lucknow8217;s historic Tile Wali Masjid, he was a member of the Samajwadi Party.

UP for grabs

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi

vice-president of BJP

Attempts to form a Muslim political outfit have failed in UP earlier. This would meet the same fate. It would be a non-starter. The mindset of Muslims of UP and Bihar is such that they prefer remaining in mainstream parties.

Prem Gupta

Union Minister of Company Affairs, RJD

It is too early to pass any judgment. One has to wait to see how it takes shape and how Muslim masses respond to it.

Mohammad Salim

CPI-M

A religion-based party can do justice neither to a community, nor to the democracy. True, Muslims have some genuine grievances over lack of education and employment, which mark the failure of secular parties, but a religion-based front is not going to help them long-term. Some people may be tempted to replicate the Assam experiment, due to the success of the Muslim front there, but they should keen in mind the fact that most people in that formation were Congress rebels, associated with Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind.

Amar Singh

general secretary of Samajwadi Party

The Assembly election will be a decisive battle and every section now wants a say. After all, we are a democratic party and not under family rule like the Congress. We are open to any suggestions for improvement from within the party and aggrieved groups and will try our best to solve their problems

with Rajeev PI in Kochi and Samudra Gupta Kashyap in Guwahati