Abdul Won in America, So Abdul will Win in UP too: An Illusion!
There is a great lesson here for the Abduls of India, if you aspire to become leaders of the Mohammads, learn from the Abduls of the USA, the UK and Europe.
In America, from the US Senate and House of Representatives to state senates and state legislatures, many Abduls have won — Alhamdulillah!
The 2026 midterm elections witnessed a spectacular Blue Wave, delivering a major political setback to Trump and his politics of hatred. A bundle of congratulations to all the victorious Abduls and Democrats!
But hold on!
There is a great lesson here for the Abduls of India. If you aspire to become leaders of the Mohammads, learn from the Abduls of the USA, the UK and Europe.
Those Abduls won the hearts of Johns, Georges, Saints, Martins, Gautams, Yadavs, Singhs and Mohammads alike.
They earned the love, respect and trust of people who neither shared their faith nor followed their religious practices.
They did not win by exploiting the religious sentiments or creating divisions among communities.
Instead, they convinced voters through their commitment to good governance, better healthcare, improved living standards and a better future for all. They worked hard to unite people across diverse backgrounds, succeeded in winning their confidence and, consequently, won both respect and elections with flying colours.
But the Abdul campaigning in Uttar Pradesh of India appears to be doing just the opposite. He is fueling fire, sowing hatred and deepening divisions, turning non-Abduls against Abduls and making the very prospect of communal harmony, mutual trust and national unity increasingly difficult. Such an Abdul is misleading Indian Abduls under the guise of being their "own leader".
Indians must learn to recognise and reject leaders whose politics thrive on division and whose vested interests are served by keeping communities at odds with one another. Present-day India is neither America nor Europe, and the majority of Indian voters do not necessarily approach electoral politics in the same way as American or European voters do.
If an Abdul of India can prove that he is genuinely like the Abduls of America, Britain and Europe, then the Abduls of India will proudly walk behind him, joined by their fellow citizens — Sharmas, Gautams, Yadavs, Thakurs, Singhs and others.
That is how genuine leadership is earned by uniting diverse communities. Otherwise, an Abdul who relies on high-pitched rhetoric, communal polarisation and manufactured hostility will only drag us deeper into a dark well, taking succeeding generations along with further to the darkness.
Remember, every fictional drama has two principal characters:
A hero and a villain.
The overwhelming majority of the audience may applaud the hero, while a section may also admire the villain for his dramatic performance. Yet, both characters are essential to the commercial success of the film. They perform under the same director, follow the same script and ultimately serve the same production house.
Politics, too, can sometimes resemble a carefully scripted movie. Political actors play their assigned roles before the masses, with some appearing as heroes to one section and villains to another. The audience may cheer, applaud, cry or become angry at what unfolds on the screen. But a discerning and sensible audience knows that what he or she is watching is a performance, not necessarily the reality, it is made to believe.
India, too, may have its own political theatre. An Abdul may perform the role of a hero for some and a villain for others. Watch the performance if you must, but do not surrender your judgement to it. Above all, do not allow any political actor to hijack your present, poison your society or mortgage the future of your country and coming generations.
A leader who cannot win the hearts of people beyond his own community cannot claim to be a national leader in a vast democracy like India, where legislation is enacted or amended through parliamentary numbers and political majorities.
A politics that survives on communal division can never deliver a united and better future for anyone. The disguised Abdul may enjoy his share of the political booty in the name of being "Your Leader", but when it comes to the legislative process, he may remain virtually ineffective — unable to deliver meaningful results for his own electorate or contribute constructively to our beloved country - India.
[The writer, M. Burhanuddin Qasmi, is Editor Eastern Crescent, Mumbai.]
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