Lucknow: As a part of its outreach to the Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress unit has written to the ulemas urging them to encourage the group to grow to be “positive voters” and flagging the chance of Muslim illustration getting marginalised in Parliament within the occasion of Muslim-dominated seats getting reserved for ladies.
The get together leaders have mentioned that identical to Muslim-dominated seats received reserved for the Dalits (in line with the Sachar Committee report), when the Structure (106th Modification) Act 2023 is carried out and 33 % reservation is given to ladies within the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies, the Muslim-dominated seats are more likely to be reserved for ladies.
By such letters, the get together plans to warn the Muslims that “other political parties had only been using them and taking them for granted.”
Within the first such letter addressed to the ulemas final week, Shahnawaz Alam, the chairman of the get together’s minority affairs division, mentioned “nobody makes Muslims part of the government because we (Muslims) vote to defeat the BJP, whereas other communities vote to help someone win.”
The Congress minority division additional wrote that the opposite events make leaders of different communities a part of the federal government in return for his or her votes, however the Muslim group has “become non-political due to their attitude” and “situation has worsened so much that the Muslims started feeling it is good to stay away from politics”.
“…leaders are not born in our community any more … In this way, we were forced to reckon with the non-political leaders imposed by others. This is a way to end our leadership, which we ourselves end up making successful,” reads the letter in possession with ThePrint.
Earlier than the rise of the Samajwadi Get together, the Muslims shaped a core vote financial institution of the Congress. The get together noticed this part of voters soften away with the rise of SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav whose Muslim-Yadav components and outreach made the regional outfit the primary alternative of the Muslims for the reason that Nineties.
As many as 73 % of Muslims voted for the Mahagathbandhan comprising the SP and Mayawati’s BSP within the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in line with a Lokniti CSDS evaluation. The SP additionally received 79 % of votes from the group within the 2022 meeting polls, it reveals.
Alam instructed ThePrint that extra such letters shall be despatched to group leaders as that is “a way of constructive engagement.”
“Around 1,000 letters have been sent to Muslim ulemas and religious leaders across 60 districts especially in rural areas of districts like Hapur, Bulandshahr, Muzaffarnagar, Barabanki, Gonda, Bahraich, Siddharthnagar, Sonbhadra, Bhadohi, Banda, Rampur, Saharanpur, and Moradabad,” he added.
‘Seats with Muslim population will be reserved for women’
The seats that “they (Muslims) used to win due to their increased share in the population will be reserved for women (in the future) the way the seats were reserved for Dalits”, the letter informs.
“While communities making up four-five per cent of the state’s population are producing dozens of leaders from within the community, on the strength of their votes, we have made ourselves negative voters. The Congress wants to change this scenario,” it says.
“Between 1980-84, as many as 49 Muslim MPs had won in the country which was almost 8.5 per cent of its 14 percent population at that time.”
“Earlier, the Congress has made chief ministers in Bihar (Abdul Gafoor), Rajasthan (Barkatullah Khan), Assam (Syeda Anwara Taimur), Maharashtra (Abdul Rahman Antulay) and Pondicherry (Hasan Farook). This was when we used to vote to help the Congress win and not to defeat someone,” the letter provides.
The letter is part of the bigger Muslim outreach programme forward of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress minority division has held silent conferences and held programmes to pay respect to Mughal emperors like Akbar and Bahadur Shah Zafar.
In October, the get together held demonstrations to spotlight the plight of madrasa lecturers not being paid their salaries. It additionally honoured retired authorities workers on the start anniversary of former Rajasthan chief minister Barkatullah Khan, in the identical month.
Additionally Learn: ‘Because of Jawan & letter to Shah Rukh’— Dr Kafeel Khan says booked in contemporary FIR over ‘BRD ghost’
‘Cong responsible for decreasing political participation’
However, SP spokesperson Manoj Singh Kaka asserted that it was the Congress which was chargeable for the reducing political participation of minorities because it had been in energy for years.
“If the political participation of minorities is decreasing, its responsibility lies with the Congress. The party has given the lowest number of tickets to Muslims in Rajasthan and MP. It denied tickets to backward leaders, who then came in touch with us and the Azad Samaj Party. If it is resorting to such politics, the Congress needs introspection. Voters will vote only for those working for inclusive development and if there is anyone working towards that, it is Akhilesh Yadav who has not only given voice to their needs in the manifesto but also raised their concerns from time to time,” he instructed ThePrint.
It was as a consequence of such discourse that “the SP leadership was forced to say that the character of BJP and Congress is the same”, Kaka added.
The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Get together is part of the Congress-led INDIA bloc.
Requested if the pursuits of the 2 events have been clashing, UP Congress chief Ajay Rai commented that the get together will method everybody from village to village. “We will reach out to everyone…farmers, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Jains, etc. We will approach everyone.”
Alam, nonetheless, mentioned that the opposite events don’t recognize the favour of the Muslims and assume they’ve nowhere to show to.
“Hence, the community is taken for granted and is not in a bargaining position. According to the reports of the Sachar committee and Ranganathan commission, Muslims’ plight is worse than that of Dalits and the seats with more Muslim population have been reserved for Dalits. In the coming future, the seats with Muslim population will be reserved for women,” he mentioned.
‘All parties hurt Muslims’
In the meantime, a senior Muslim cleric mentioned that the Congress has not given area to the youth in management and that their Muslim leaders failed to stay in contact with the group on floor.
Maulana Aarif, the Shahi Imam, Jama Masjid in Bulandshahr’s Sikandrabad, added that each get together has used the Muslims.
“Congress was in power for 70 years. How many leaders have they groomed from within the community? Every party used us as a vote bank and abandoned us. Nobody is our enemy, including the BJP. Everyone is damaging us in their own way. If Muslims have been weakened it is because of the Congress,” he instructed ThePrint.
Aarif added that even the Muslim MPs from the Congress remained elusive after they turned leaders. “Has Salman Khurshid ever travelled on the ground? Why is the Congress investing in such old individuals? Why are youth not being included in leadership? They were taking votes for 30 years but apart from appointing Muslims as home guards and teachers, no proper jobs have been given to the community,” he rued.
Aarif mentioned that whereas events have been scaring the group within the title of the BJP, the get together’s considering isn’t the identical as “a particular CM of a particular state.”
“One CM may have some polarising thinking but the thought process of the party is not the same in every state. No party has fallen short of damaging the Muslims. Some have damaged our eyes, some our hands, others our feet and some took away our brain itself. But now, Muslims are becoming more aware,” he mentioned.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Additionally Learn: ‘Entry of cow eater a violation’ — native VHP chief ‘purifies’ UP temple after Muslim MLA’s go to