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For Muslims leaders, a
hearing with ministers or inviting them in a convention is only aimed
at pushing their personal goals
(Photo: The Milli
Gazette) |
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The price
of being kin of 'A Terrorist':
When the nation woke up
to June 16 morning in 2004, they were greeted by screaming media
headlines and photos ....
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For last several years, I have been
cautioning “Muslim leaders” to be more realistic, visionary and
attentive to the pulse of the Muslim youth which constitute around
sixty percent of the total Muslim population in India, before it’s
too late.
On the morning of 31st May 2010, I was aghast to see contents of the
letter, as reported by the Indian Express, of Sahabuddin Ahmed, one
of the accused and acquitted in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks by courts
in Mumbai who is still in the Arthur Road Mumbai Jail waiting to be
shifted to Uttar Pradesh, the northern province of India, in another
terror-related trial. Sahabuddin was highly critical of the Muslim
leadership for the poor condition of Muslims in India beside
attacking the state machinery and highlighting the conditions of the
other inmates in Arthur Road Jail.
In his communique, Sahabuddin writes, “It has been nearly two years
since I was brought to Mumbai. I live with hundred other inmates
like me. They wait forever, hoping their trail will also begin some
day. They hope they will have a lawyer to represent them before the
court and help them prove their innocence……I never cared for
politics until my arrest. But the year long stint in Arthur Road
Jail has made me sceptical. I read in the newspapers that the Muslim
leaders make a statement or two about how innocent men like him are
implicated in false cases. But what do they really do to help
us………The community (Muslims) feels targeted because there is no one
to take up our cases………”
By a quick overview it seems to be a general reaction of an accused
who has found no help from his community leaders but if we go deeper
into the contents we can easily find anger, anguish and frustration
of the Muslim youth against the leadership. In spite of finding
difficulty in agreeing to contents of his letter in totality, my
conscience can not resist to lend my support to some of the points
he had raised in his letter.
I personally know that most of the accused acquitted by the courts
in Hyderabad terror cases got legal assistance from the
Majlis-e-Ittahadul Muslimeen (MIM) and Tameer-e- Millat. In
Hyderabad terror attack cases around 100 arrested and accused young
Muslims were acquitted by the courts because of the legal help
extended by MIM, Tameer-e-Millat and civil society to the families
of the accused. Andhra Pradesh Unit of Jamiat Ulama Hind (Usman-Mehmood
Madani group) have assisted 16 accused in Mecca Masjid terror
attacks and they got acquitted from the courts. Advocate Shafiq
Mahajir, who had represented a good number of accused in the courts
told me that MIM had submitted sureties of number of accused in the
court for their release.
Accused No. 2 in 26/11 Mumbai attack, Faheem Ansari got assistance
from Maharashtra unit of Jamiat Ulama Hind (Arshad Madani group)
through Advocate Shahid Azmi (who was shot dead during trail) and
later Advocate R. B. Mokashi, senior counsel Mumbai High Court and
got acquitted. Incidentally Sabahuddin Ahmed was Accused No. 3 in
26/11 attack and was being represented by an advocate arranged by
designated court for Mumbai attacks. Jamait Ulama Hind (Arshad
Madani group) is also fighting 64 cases of terror accused
purportedly of Indian Mujahideen in Ahmadabad, 52 in Surat and 16 in
Mumbai. JUH (Arshad) is also extending legal help to Aftab Ansari,
convicted for attack on American Centre by the courts in West Bengal
and is being represented by Shanti Bhushan there.
Also I have read, some time back, that Abu Asim Azmi, a firebrand
leader of Mumbai, who himself was accused of terror acts and was
jailed too have assisted a good number of accused in Mumbai train
blast (some of them got acquitted too), in Malegaon blast case and
at some other places.
In Jaipur terror attack case, one of the four accused arrested,
Engineer Azmi, is being represented by Advocate Paker Farooque who
is incharge, Legal Cell Rajasthan Chapter of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. I
understand that Jamaat-e- Islami Rajasthan Chapter is also actively
involved in providing legal assistance to 13 of the arrested for
unlawful activities after Jaipur blast.
After putting the records straight, I now want to turn on the depth
of the pain of the youth who is part of the pan-Indian Muslim
community.
Ironically the Muslim leadership is not ready to feel the
under-current in the upcoming Muslim generation. If we minutely
scrutinize the number of the “leaders” in the community, we would
not find more than 60 names which are controlling affairs of all
Muslim organizations and representing them politically. Most of
these leaders have got access, by sheer manipulations and support
from each other, in number of Muslim organizations and even many of
them are related to each other.
Muslims have been facing the crisis for long and have been
harvesting the results of the visionless approach of its leaders.
I remember an incident of 22nd January 1993, when Muslim
intelligentsia had convened a “Muslim Intelligentsia Meet” at the
City Centre of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) at Mandi House in
New Delhi. I got an invitation to attend the event. There was a
surcharged atmosphere against the Muslim leadership and the ultra
secularists were spewing venom on the pre-Babri Masjid demolition
leadership. Incidentally some of the top most leaders of Babri
Masjid Movement were also sitting quietly in the audience. Some of
the youth were too hostile and were angry with them.
During the lunch break, Prof Mohammad Hashim Qureshi of JNU and Dr
Salahuddin of Delhi University persuaded me to be part of a
five-member Subject Committee which would finalize the declaration
of the meet. After much hesitation, I agreed and attended the
Subject Committee meeting. As I along with Prof Hashim Qureshi have
disagreed to two of the resolutions to be presented in the
post-lunch session of the meet and have registered a dissent note in
writing—on the Common Civil Code and Babri Masjid (which did not
found support of the majority of the open House of the meet), I was
given a chance to express my point before a larger audience. I
argued that I am willing to support the anger and anguish of the
Muslim intelligentsia and secular tribe of the Muslim community
against the leadership only if the larger audience is shared about
the steps, the Muslim intelligentsia has taken to counter the stand
of the Babri Masjid Movement leadership practically. I have
cautioned that the post 1992-leadership would be weak and much more
vision-less than that of pre-1992 era. Ironically my fear has come
true to some extent.
In March 1994, I wrote a letter to around 100 Muslim leaders as
Secretary, Markazi Jamiat Ulama Hind for enlisting their support to
start a campaign for reservation for Muslims in Public Employment
and Education, I got written responses from 25 luminaries, including
that of Janab Saiyid Hamid, former Vice Chancellor, AMU; Mr. Syed
Shahabuddin; Mr. Fazal Mohammad, former Member Planning Commision
(who joined BJP and became Governor in late nineties); Maulana Ali
Mohammad Sher-e-Mewat; KM Arifuddin, Secretary, Medina Education
Society Hyderabad; Dr. Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, founder, Al Ameen
Education Movement Bangalore; Maulana Shafi Moonis, Vice President
of Jamaat e Islami Hind and Dr. Ishaque Jamkhanawala, President,
Anjuman-e-Islam, Mumbai and subsequently the group agreed to form
“Association for Promoting Education & Employment of Muslim Indians”
and organized the first ever National Convention for Muslim
Reservation in Education and Public Employment on 9th October 1994.
As soon as the dates of the convention was announced, a number of
the leaders of the Muslim community joined hands and persuaded Dr
Mumtaz Ahmed Khan not to attend the convention and also went in a
delegation to Giani Zail Singh, former President of India to plead
and successfully persuaded him not to inaugurate the convention. The
organizing committee requested Sita Ram Kesri, the then Minister for
Social Justice to inaugurate the convention at the eleventh hour and
he was kind to oblige.
Because of the stiff opposition of the leadership on the issue of
reservation for Muslims, I decided to resign from the post of the
Secretary, Markazi Jamait Ulam e Hind. After the convention, for
three consecutive years, there was a sustained campaign to oppose
the demand and the campaign was financed by two influential leaders
of the ruling party. Many articles of ultra secularists got
prominence in all leading newspapers and statements against the
Muslim reservation and some influential names of the Muslim
leadership decried the demand. It got around 6 years for broad
spectrum of Muslim leadership to understand the importance of the
reservation for Muslims.
Ironically, when a group of the most backward Muslim leaders,
started demanding the inclusion of the Dalit Muslims in the Schedule
Caste category, most of the Muslim leaders and organizations started
deploring the demand and making fun of the demand raisers by arguing
that there is no caste system in the Muslims. It took nearly 15
years for the Muslim leadership to reach a near consensus that Dalit
Muslims need to be included in the Schedule Caste category. The
Justice Ranganathan Commission report crystallized the consensus as
there was no justification left for them to oppose the demand.
I also remember an interesting incident of 1991 soon after Narsimha
Rao became Prime Minister. Mr Shahid Siddiqui, Editor of Urdu Weekly
Nai Duniya, invited a group of around 12 Muslims to interact with Mr
Rajesh Pilot, the then Minister of State in Narsimha Rao Government
at his residence. Mr Pilot was then considered very close to
Narsimha Rao. Mr. Shahid Siddiqui was very generous to invite me as
a voice of young Muslims. During discussions I reminded Mr. Pilot
that in the last leg of Mr Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, as part of a group
of young Muslims which have got an opportunity to meet the PM , we
have pleaded for the constitution of National Minorities Financial
Corporation and the PM was sympathetic to our plea and promised to
sympathetically consider the idea. One of the attendants of the
meeting who was a government servant and became Secretary of a
Muslim organization after retirement vigorously opposed the demand
and argued that there would be backlash from the Hindutva forces.
That meeting ended on a sad note. However it is history that Pilot
became vocal supporter of the demand and P V Narsimha Rao Government
announced the formation of the National Minorities Financial
Corporation with a corpus fund of around 50 lakhs, if I remembers
the allocation correctly.
It was in December 1996, I discussed the implications of the Women
Reservation Bill with late K.M. Khan, the Congress MP. He agreed to
my fear and we decided to have an informal meeting of the Muslim
leaders on the issue. In third week of December, I invited Janab
Saiyid Hamid, Mr Syed Shahabuddin, Maulana Shafi Moonis and Maulana
Abdul Qayyum of Jamat e Islami Hind, Dr. Majida Asad, formerly Head
of the department of Hindi in Jamia Millia Islamia, Mr. M. Afzal
former MP along with some others at the residence of Mr K M Khan.
The group informally met and exchanged notes and agreed to meet at
later date after the things are more crystallized on the proposed
Women Reservation Bill.
The group met for a number of times in next one year and in February
1998 formally decided to constitute a Committee on the Women
Reservation Bill to demand for a separate quota for Muslim women. Dr
Sughra Mehdi, former Head of the Department of Urdu, Jamia Millia
Islamia; renowned TV artist Salma Sultan; Shehzadi Nikhat Abidi of
Rampur State; renowned journalist Noor Jahan Sarwat, Dr Majida Asad;
Maulana Shafi Moonis of Jamat e Islami Hind; Mr. Saiyid Hamid; K.M.
Khan M.P.; Mr. M. M. Afzal; Anis Durrani of Media Department of
AIICC, KM Arifuddin Hyderabad; Mrs. Badr Saeed from Chennai; Mrs
Zainab Khusro, wife of AM Khusro; Mrs. Husna Subhani, the then
President of Janta Dal Delhi State (she is now in the Women cell of
All India Congress Committee) ; Dr. Ishaq Jamkhanawala, Mumbai; Mr.
Kaleemuddin Shams, Minister West Bengal; Mr. Basheeruddin Babu Khan,
former Minister Andhra Pradesh and Uzma Naheed, Mumbai agreed to be
founder members of “Committee for Empowerment of Muslim Women”.
As soon as the the committee was announced there were ripples and
the voices of opposition started emerging from so the so-called
leadership. I was told by late K.M. Khan that two of the Congress
MP’s have met him and tried to dissuade him from being be part of
the group. Sensing the mischief, Mr. K.M. Khan immediately requested
for an audience with the Congress President and briefed her about
the concern of the community.
The committee subsequently organized a very successful Convention of
Muslim Women which was attended by a large number of educated,
empowered and professional women and the meet was inaugurated and
chaired by Dr Nirmala Deshpande in New Delhi on 31st May 1998. Many
political heavy-weight cutting across party line attended the
Convention in spite of the dirty game of some of the “Muslim
leaders” to sabotage the move. They successfully persuaded Mrs.
Abida Ahmed, former first lady of India not to preside not to
preside the proposed Convention. On the morning of the proposed
Convention, I got a call from the son of the Chairman, National
Commission of Minorities who had sent a written communique to
inaugurate the Convention that the Hon’ble Chairman would not be
able to inaugurate the Convention because of urgent pressing
official engagement (it was Sunday) and also a call from Mrs. Abida
Ahmed’s home that Mrs. Ahmed would not be able to attend and preside
because of some health problems. I immediately contacted renowned
Gandhian Dr Nirmala Deshpande, who was supposed to be one of the
speakers, to inaugurate the Convention and she obliged because of
her sheer love for me.
After the Convention of Muslim Women, I personally went to each and
every leader of the Muslim organization to persuade them to support
the demand for the Muslim women in the proposed Women Reservation
Bill. Most of them were not at all convinced and were not
forthcoming to support.
The group also got a privilege to meet Mrs. Sonia Gandhi twice; Mr.
Lalu Prasad thrice; Mr. Mulayam Singh and Mr. Ram Gopal Yadav; Mr.
Hari Kishan Singh Surjeet of CPM; and Mr. Balayogi, the then speaker
of Lok Sabha and pleaded for the case of Muslim women quota in the
proposed Bill. Late Chanderjit Yadav, former Union Minister and Mr P
V Shiv Shanker, former Union Law Minister were very helpful in
encouraging to raise the demand along with the quota for OBC women
too. When we were channelizing the support some of the “Muslim
leaders” were busy in mocking us and writing articles against the
move.
There are numerous cases which can be pointed as part of the proof
of the lapses of the Muslim leadership. They are not ready to
encourage and train new faces in the organizations. If we talk about
the political leadership, one would find it difficult to mention
names in double digits. Most of them became representatives of their
parties the moment they got a chance to get selected from Muslim
community to represent Muslims.
Recently M J Khan of National Economic Forum for Muslims told me
that when he along with Mr. Ilyas Azmi M.P. went to persuade Mr.
Rashid Alvi, Congress MP to sign a joint letter of Muslim MPs
addressed to the PM on the implementation of Justice Rangnath
Commission Report, he rudely refused in spite of the fact that four
of his party MPs were signatory to the petition along with 13
others. I have little doubt to believe that because I had personally
tried to convince Mr. Rashid Alvi to present the demand of a
separate quota for the Muslim women and the pet reply came, “Muslims
have not sent me to Rajya Sabha. It is my party which had sent me. I
can not agree with the demand unless there is a party line for
that.”
A good friend and just like an elder brother and Independent member
of Rajya Sabha, Mr. Mohammad Adeeb, during debate on Women
Reservation Bill in the upper House of Parliament voiced his concern
about the proposed Women Reservation Bill without a quota for Muslim
women but voted for the Bill without sub quota for Muslim Women.
Many in the Muslim community are trying to understand his stand as
there was no party obligation for him to vote for the Bill as
presented by the government
Most Muslims selected to represent the community, because of their
Muslim names, feel shy to identify with the Muslim community the
moment they got chance to represent the community to which they
belong.
I recall when BJP government was formed in Uttar Pradesh, one Mr.
Rizvi was appointed Minister of Waqfs in the Kalyan Singh
Government, Rizvi went barefooted to the site of demolished Babri
Masjid with a Saffron tilak chanting “Jai Sri Ram” as an act of
thanks to the BJP.
More recently reacting to his nomination to Rajya Sabha, Mr Javed
Akhtar said: “He would attempt to reflect the hopes, feelings and
aspirations of the people especially from Mumbai in the country’s
most august democratic forum.” Muslims were just amused on his
emphasis on Mumbai.
Coming back to the contents of the letter, it needs an urgent
attention. It is a wake up call for all those who claims to be
leaders of the Muslim community and to those who get representation
in the name of the Muslims to mend their fences before it is too
late. We need a constant planning to play our role for the
betterment of the community and country at large. Neglecting the
vocal dissent voices would take us nowhere and would harm not only
the interests of the community but also the nation.
The writer, Navaid Hamid is General Secretary, Movement for Empowerment for
Muslim Indians (MOEMIN) and Member, National Integration Council
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