Barua,
I agree. The Assam Tribune is not being consistent. They have been changing the official names of many organizations and yet not their one.
--Ram
On 9/3/06, Rajen & Ajanta Barua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>The Assam Tribune
>Editorial, August 29, 2006
>Muslims in Asom: estrangement or engagement>United Liberation Front of AsomHypocritical litikai Assam Tribune is changing the name of Assam to Asom for everybody except for own.RB--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Assam TribuneThe 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.
Editorial, August 29, 2006
Muslims in Asom: estrangement or engagement
Abu Nasar Saied Ahmed
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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