Physics says every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Narendra Modi’s kinetic personality coalesced the Hindu psyche into a national political movement. Organised Hindutva that rose as a monolith from the ugly debris of appeasement and pseudo-market politics created a vacuum to be exploited. The 51-year-old Asaduddin Owaisi, the third generation political dynast of Hyderabad and inheritor of quite-a-mouthful All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, had been waiting for such a chance.
A national Islamic party is the dream of India’s 195 million Muslims, which Barrister Owaisi from Lincoln’s Inn dreams to realize for himself. Alternate politicians are mutants of the original gene, the reason why Indian politics remains mono-dimensional. They have no alternative agenda except their own religious and/or caste affiliations and identities.
The road to hell is paved with the footprints of people who tried to acquire political legitimacy by floating parties for minorities, tribal and Dalits. From All India Muslim League to the Republic Party of India, outfits were launched to seek national clout and proportional power share at the Centre and the states. None of the national parties allowed a Muslim leader to become a national icon, by either marginalising them or diminishing them with ornamental posts.
Owaisi’s sherwani is cut from a different cloth. He assumes he has the right degree and pedigree to claim the space of the Great Indian Muslim Leader. His skullcap hides an astute MBA (Muslim Brotherhood Alternative) strategist, who is polarising Muslims and Dalits away from the national mainstream to expand his market. After tasting victories in Maharashtra and recently in Bihar, he now has West Bengal in his sights. Undeterred by allegations that he is a BJP fifth columnist launched to split anti-BJP votes, Owaisi is well on track to become the tallest Muslim leader of post-Independence India. Bengal has over 27 percent Muslim voters.
Owaisi is expected to split these traditionally pro-TMC votes, compelling Mamata Banerjee to nickname AI MIM, the BJP’s B-team. Owaisi retorted, “Never was a man born who can buy Asaduddin Owaisi with money”. Then, never before has a metro leader got such national prominence and media attention. Indian Muslims lack intellectual and popular leadership to craft a united strategy. They are kept in ignorance by minority maneuvers, ghettoised by clerics and adopted by Left wing moralists. This leadership gap has helped Owaisi assume the Caliph’s throne.
On any Islam-related issue, it is he whom TV channels, institutions and think tanks invite to represent the minorities ignoring his party’s tainted past. AIMM has an unsavoury past and a controversial present. Like in the Congress, the Akali Dal, the Shiv Sena, the DMK, the National Conference, the Samajawadi Party etc, DNA controls the AI MM, too.
While other parties were floated to fight for freedom or to represent caste and regional interests, the AI MIM’s mandate was to fight India. It began life in 1927 as the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) in the Princely State of Hyderabad to launch the struggle for a “Muslim dominion”. In 1944, its radical leader Qasim Rizvi mobilised over one lakh Razakars to organise an armed resistance against the merger of Hyderabad with India. They terrorised, looted, raped and murdered thousands of Hindus. The Indian Army put down the rebellion and Rizvi was jailed.
Before leaving for Pakistan in 1957, he chose Abdul Wahid Owaisi as his successor. Grandfather Owaisi added ‘All India’ to Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen to acquire pan-India Muslim connectivity and became the undisputed leader of the Muslims settled in and around Hyderabad. Over 18 years, he transformed AI MIM into a formidable political empire. His son Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi was so powerful and popular that he was called Salar-e-Millat (commander of the community). He ensured victories in local elections and became a Lok Sabha MP. AI MM became influential enough for its headquarters to merit a visit from the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Now, Abdul Wahid’s grandson Asaduddin represents his father’s Lok Sabha seat and has always won. Younger brother Akbaruddin, who doesn’t hide his extremist anti-India views, is the leader of the party in the Telangana Assembly. However, family ownership of the party isn’t Asaduddin’s only qualification to claim the credible minority leader position. He is carefully choosing constituencies that can multiply his votes if not seats.
As per the Election Commission, any party can acquire national party status if it gains at least six percent of valid votes polled in any four or more states in a Lok Sabha election or a state legislature. It must win a minimum four Lok Sabha seats. Alternatively, it must bag two percent of the total Lok Sabha seats representing three states. Currently, AIMIM holds two Lok Sabha seats and 14 of over 4,000 Assembly seats in India. Nationally, its vote share is below one percent. It hasn’t garnered over three percent votes in any state, including stronghold Telangana.
This explains Owaisi’s expansionist plan, striking alliances with castes and non-Hindu communities. He believes he can lasso Dalits into his grand alliance of deprived classes. He tried this formula in the Maharashtra Lok Sabha and Assembly elections by collaborating with Dalit leader Prakash Ambedker’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi but came away with just two Assembly seats.
Owaisi is scripting his electoral travelogue to suit his ambition. AIMIM’s stellar performance of 31 seats out of 78 in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh civic body elections has given him hope. He has extended support to JD(S) in Karnataka. Though he dreams of a national empire, his party is just nominally present in eight states. He is conspicuously absent in Kerala where the Muslim League monopolises the community votes. He will be contesting around 25 seats in Tamil Nadu next year.
Like other national parties fielding the token Muslim, Owaisi has fielded a few Hindus in various local and state elections to dilute his hard core Islamic image. This most vocal Opposition leader against CAA and the abrogation of Article 370 has been cultivating other social groups, too. His party liberally funded flood relief in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Kerala but its leaders spew venom against Hindus.
Owaisi argues “AIMIM may be a political party that takes up the cause of not only Muslims but also Dalits and other weaker sections. It’s not a Muslim party,” …”Who has given them (critics) the right to call me secular or communal or anti-national?” However, he forgets that the literal translation of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul- ul-Muslimeen is “All India Council for Unity of Muslims”. Owaisi is, perhaps, channeling Jinnah who said, “expect the best, prepare for the worst.” His best tactic is to prepare himself as a minimised Minority Modi — a combination of irresistible ideology and articulate ambition. But for the neo-Nizam of Hyderabad trying to be the next Shahenshah of Hindustan, it will always remain a mirage.
prabhu chawla
prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com
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