Author: Farzand Ahmed and Shafi Rahman
Publication: India Today
Date: July 10, 2008
URL: http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&issueid=62&task=view&id=11162&Itemid=1
Introduction: In about 100 constituencies
where the Muslim vote is decisive, the N-deal may generate more debate than
inflation or terrorism
When in desperation, put on your skull cap.
The nuclear deal hitherto debated away from its communal implications, has
been gaining the good ol' Muslim angle.
Though the deal is yet to be signed, community
organisations and politicians are revving up for the occasion. It all started
with CPI(M)'s senior politburo member M.K. Pandhe inserting the nuclear deal
into the list of grievances of Indian Muslims and announcing that "an
overwhelming majority of the Muslim masses" opposed it.
He urged Samajwadi Party (SP) president Mulayam
Singh Yadav not to alienate them by supporting it.
Though the Left party quickly distanced itself
from his comments, the debate gained momentum as political parties jumped
to the conclusion that the deal with the "Satan" can be a big ticket
item in around 100 constituencies, where Muslim votes are decisive.
Last week, as her arch rival Mulayam extended
support to the Congress-led UPA over the nuclear deal with the US, Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Mayawati felt political tremors under her feet and followed
up Pandhe's comments with vigour. She targeted Mulayam by saying that his
secularism had been a tamasha.
"Remember, it was Mulayam who had stopped
Sonia Gandhi from becoming the prime minister and helped the BJP-led NDA to
rule for six years. Now the Congress and SP are cosying up for the deal,"
she said.
She firmed up her "anti-Muslim"
theory by inviting influential Sunni and Shia clerics to discuss the deal's
impact on the community and the problems the Muslims faced.
It was due to the efforts of former Union
minister Akhilesh Das and Siraj Mehdi, both of whom had recently resigned
from the Congress to join BSP, that a group of ulema and maulanas including
Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, Maulana Khalid Rasheed Fringi Mahali and
Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman, many of whom were with 'Maulvi' Mulayam till recently,
walked into her house to thank her for her bold stand on the deal and to pledge
their support to her.
Mahali even declared that through her clear
stand, Mayawati has won the hearts of Muslims even as Rahman, the firebrand
Imam of Tilawali Masjid, warned Mulayam that if he did not desist from joining
hands with the Congress, a fatwa would soon be issued against him.
In response to this, SP General Secretary
Amar Singh, the main architect of the SP-Congress deal, said that the whole
world knows that Mayawati has been hobnobbing with the BJP by sharing power
with the saffron party thrice in the past.
However, Mayawati's move to win over the Muslims
suffered a serious setback when Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi, the deputy rector
(naib mohtamim) of Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband and Hazrat Maulana Tauquir Raza Khan,
the spiritual head of the Barelvi school of thoughts supported the nuclear
deal and snubbed the handpicked clerics of Lucknow for supporting Mayawati
who had "never cared for Muslims".
And these men head two of the highly-revered
Islamic institutions that can influence many Sunni Muslims in north India.
The Congress, which has been wooing Muslim
votes with a slew of schemes, is now trying to diminish the stirring nature
of the anti-Muslim theory.
The party claims that the Muslim opposition
is restricted to the policies of outgoing US President George W. Bush and
not with the deal.
"Muslims may have an issue with the shopkeeper
but not with the product," said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi.
But like the Congress and RJD, SP leaders
too seem to have turned the table upon Mayawati and the Left by trying to
convince the Muslims that not only is the nuclear deal in national interest
but that the BJP was a bigger threat to them.
Uttar Pradesh, with 19 per cent Muslim votes,
plays a key role in deciding the fortunes of political parties in the Lok
Sabha polls.
The community had been a strong pillar of
Mulayam's Muslim-Yadav combination till Mayawati forged her rainbow coalition
successfully. SP is, therefore, planning to announce its Muslim candidates
for the Lok Sabha polls, before the trust vote in Parliament to keep its flock
together.
The party is also making use of former President
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's endorsement of the deal to counter the anti-minority
perception.
Leading Urdu weekly Nai Dunia, ironically,
owned and edited by SP MP Shahid Siddiqui carried a survey that showed that
70 per cent of Muslims in the country were opposed to the deal.
It also said that 85 per cent Muslims considered
America their biggest enemy while about 70 per cent felt that the UPA Government
has done nothing for the Muslims.
The party under the changed situation has
rubbished the survey. But the tragedy is that the survey was "conducted"
when the party had been against the deal but was published when it had reversed
its stand.
Major political parties of Jammu and Kashmir,
the National Conference (NC) and People's Democratic Party have said that
the deal is not against the community.
"We do not consider it against Muslims.
The deal is either good or bad for the country. Where does the issue of Muslims
come here?" said Omar Abdullah, NC president.
The CPI(M) in West Bengal and Kerala too is
planning to hit the poll turf with the nuclear deal issue. In northern Kerala
with a sizeable Muslim population, the party will play to community sentiments
by raising the issue.
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), part
of the Congress-led front in Kerala, will find it difficult to hold its turf.
The IUML, whose sole representative in Parliament is Minister of State for
External Affairs E. Ahamed, will be meeting in the coming days to finalise
its stand on the deal.
The party has been caught between risking
electoral backlash and pulling out its man from the Government. The youth
wing of the Indian National League, a Left ally, has already demanded that
Ahamed should resign from the Government.
Pandhe's fresh gift to Muslim grievance roaster
will surely add up to the election planks in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
But, so far, there are no clear winners in the first stretch run towards the
corridors of power.
