HYDERABAD: It is common knowledge that AIMIM holds “durbars” at its party headquarters Darrusalam for those who wish to approach its MLAs or MPs. The issues that the constituents bring forward to their representatives from the party are usually relayed through letters. A recent study has studied these letters to ascertain the kind of issues brought up in them, and how the are solved.
The study, titled “Mediating Muslim citizenship? AIMIM and its letters” by city-based A Suneetha and M A Moid and published in Contemporary South Asia found that the 1,000 letters they studied between 2010 and 2011 were “secular” requests pertaining to documentation, household economy, health, employment and living standards.
Breaking down the demographics, the study said that individuals who came with the requests were mostly Muslims, “but there were many Hindus too”.” Muslim engineering students came to seek a reduction in tuition fees. The lower middle class, poor Muslims and non-Muslims sought reimbursement of health expenditure,” said the researchers.
These complaints, the researchers said, indicated limited entitlements that a State provided such as “scholarships, housing sites, health care expenses’ and so on. “ They (the requests) also relate to battles against bureaucratic high handedness, arbitrariness, delay, corruption as well as bias and prejudice that these two processes are ridden with,” the paper said.
Visitors to the party office reiterated that these letters asserted weight in government offices. However, for these requests to bear results, party workers and elected representatives had to keep pursuing them diligently, with constant cajoling, warnings and threats of protests and so on, the research added.