Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind general secretary Mehmood Madani has hit Congress where it hurts most – its claim that it is the principal custodian of secular fabric of Indian society and polity. The cleric’s rude jolt to the grand old party was that Muslims must not be seen as captive voters or just as a vote bank when it comes to an electoral face off in the upcoming five assembly elections and subsequent parliamentary polls. This effectively means that Congress’s hopes of painting the Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi contest as a secularism versus communalism one, which would allow it to be the natural beneficiary of what is called hostile voting by the minority community, has been dented.
The clerics statement, where he said, “Congress should not try to get Muslim votes by creating fear about somebody. These so called secular parties should look at possibilities of community welfare which they have not done so far”, will not however only unnerve the Congress. It will also hurt other other secularists such as Nitish Kumar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, the CPI and CPM who are planning a joint convention against communalism (read Narendra Modi), on October 30 in New Delhi.
His speech in Jaipur two days ago stirred the political class. He is angry because the Congress and other ‘secular’ parties take Muslims for granted, currently even more by engaging only in “negative” politics, and raising a bogey of Narendra Modi to garner minority community votes. He didn’t stop with that. He slammed Rajashthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, calling him a name which has so far been passionately used against Modi by his hard boiled critics – a mass murderer.
“Rajasthan chief minister has got Muslims killed and has done nothing other than getting them killed. He has failed 100 percent. People were looted killed and the killers are at large. Close relatives of those who died were booked as accused in these cases”, he said in a series of interviews after landing in Delhi on Tuesday. The sum and substance of his message was that there is no need for Muslims to unnecessarily fear Modi.
Madani’s criticism of Congress is not equal to an endorsement of Modi
“Congress all secular parties are running a negative campaign. Whenever you criticise them they will tell you not to talk so much, as it might get polarised into a Modi issue,” Madani said. According to him, be it the condition of Muslims in Rajasthan or the condition of Muslim youth in Maharashtra’s jails, the condition of Muslims is no better in non-BJP ruled states. Shahid Siddiqui, editor of Nai Duniya, also said that the Muslims have been pushed into a corner by the secular parties into choosing between non-existent alternatives. “We have to carry the burden of secularism. They have done in the Muslim worse than Dalits. We are blackmailed into that,” he said. According to him, Congress and other secular parties always resort to the Modi versus secularism debate without looking at their own track record of communalism. “It’s secular versus no-option debate.”
