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>The Assam Tribune
>Editorial, August
29, 2006
>Muslims in Asom: estrangement or
engagement
>United Liberation Front of Asom
Hypocritical litikai Assam Tribune
is changing the name of Assam to Asom for everybody except
for own.
RB
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The Assam
Tribune
Editorial, August 29, 2006
Muslims in Asom: estrangement or
engagement
Abu Nasar Saied Ahmed
The much-quoted statement of British Prime
Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) There is no gambling like politicsis
putatively relevant to Indian politics. The recent developments in Muslim
politics in Asom tend to confirm it in unmistakable terms.
The Muslim
politics in Asom took a turn towards particularism soon after the historic
verdict of the Supreme Court invalidating the controversial IM(DT) Act. A new
political outfit appeared in the scene ostensibly to protect the Muslims from
unnecessary harassment that might be meted out to them on mere suspicion to be
Bangladeshi nationals. This putative fear together with an undiplomatic and
hard-hitting statement of the Chief Minister provided the political rationale
behind the formation of the AUDF. It did not take time to see the changing
contour of the new political outfit, which had limitless political ambition to
play the role of the kingmakerand occupy the driversseat of governance in the
State. The speculative political equations were based on certain quick and
business-like assessment of the political scenario in the State. A totally
shattered and vertically divided regional party, the AGP, despite the tall
claims made by its president, was too weak to secure absolute majority in the
Asom Legislative Assembly. Similarly, the BJP despite its graduated expansion
in its support base was unlikely to strike magic in the election performance
in a communally harmonious State like Asom. Therefore, Badaruddin Ajmal, the
president of the AUDF, appears to have calculated that his new party would be
able to accomplish a political engineering to erode the traditional Congress
base and reduce its strength substantially. In other words, Asom would
experience a hung Assembly and in such a situation his party would be in the
drivers seat in the formation of government. His calculation was based on
certain hard factual data. Out of 126 Assembly constituencies there are 23
constituencies in which the Muslims constitute 50 to 90 per cent of the
electorate, in 7 constituencies they share 40 to 49 per cent votes. It means
that out of 126 constituencies Muslims play a decisive role in 30
constituencies. In a changed situation, he might have speculated that his
party would be able to capture almost all these 30 seats. In the process he
would be the kingmaker. If things proceeded according to his assessment of the
political situation, he would be able to not only unseat the Congress from
power but also settle a score with the Chief Minister.
Political
calculations are different from commercial ones. As Harold Laski once
commented that in politics it may so happen that 0+0+0+0=4. That is why Ajmals
calculations eventually turned out to be miscalculations. It was obviously
wrong to assume that the Muslims in Asom have an electoral collectivism. The
long experience of electoral and legislative politics in Asom since 1937
abnegates the idea of unity of political action of the Muslims. It was a
trivialisation or oversimplification of the political maturity of the Muslims
of Asom to assume that they were morbidly terrified at the verdict of the
Supreme Court on the IM(DT) Act, and therefore, would rally under the umbrella
of a newly formed party to find a protective shield under it. There has been
erroneous construction of a thesis that the Muslims of Asom constitute the
dependable vote bank of the Congress. Although they constitute 30 per cent of
the total population of the State and a significant force to reckon with in
the electoral politics in Asom, more than one party shares their votes as they
rally behind various political parties and have set an example of unseating
the Congress from power more than once. It is true that in certain
constituencies the Muslims vote en bloc and en mass which makes the electoral
situation visibly different. But at the same time, a political party emerging
out of a personalised agenda cannot really muster sustenance for a long time.
More importantly, the post-colonial political setting did not testify to the
survival of a Muslim based communal party. Although the AUDF has been trying
its best to disabuse its comnmunal face by fielding non-Muslim candidates in
the last Assembly elections of 2006, it is yet to secure peoples acceptability
as a secular party. Its credibility as a truly secular and democratic party
will heavily depend not on words and the manifesto but on its activities and
programmes.
The history of Muslim politics in Asom in the post-colonial
period does not suggest a bright future of a communal-based party. It is true
that in the early part of the last century, the Muslim League as a communal
party could enlist the support of a sizeable section of the Muslims. But at
the same time it is also a fact that many of them joined the national
mainstream under the banner of the Indian National Congress. Soon after
Independence, Sir Syed Saadullah, who had been the Premier of Asom for five
times, turned down the position of the Governor of East Pakistan, decided to
stay in this country and join the Congress along with his followers. On the
floor of the Asom Legislative Assembly soon after Independence he made an
eloquent speech reaffirming his commitment to the Constitution. He said ...Now
the Muslims, who have been placed either by accident or birth or domicile
under the Constitution, we are all ready to extend our hand of cooperation and
loyal services...Since then the Muslim approach to particularism or
estrangement disappeared and got themselves engaged in the task of
nation-building, notwithstanding the fact that there were shuttle attempts at
reviving particularism in some form or other. In February 1975 an organisation
called the Asom Muslim Parishad was formed at the initiative of Syed Ahmed Ali
and Omaruddin to struggle for the common interests of the Muslims.It was not a
political party but a pressure group, which did not last even for a year. In a
meeting held on March 8, 1977 at Haji Musafirkhana, another organisation named
the Eastern India Muslim Associationwas formed. It also met with the same
fate. It is needless to remind the readers about the emergence and the end of
UMF. In a multicultural society as in Asom, it is extremely difficult to keep
a communally charged political plank, despite its secular and democratic
nomenclature, alive and sustained, for particularism, even theoretically
conceived does not stand on a permanent footing. The political expediency in
the State does not subscribe to an impression that a Muslim communal framework
will survive on the floor of the Assembly on any issue facing the
Muslims.
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