“Muslim population is 18% but there is no leader.” Why India could not find a Muslim leader at the national level?
Prashant Kishor, a political strategist or planner who guides political parties to victory in elections in India, has highlighted the lack of leadership among Indian Muslims in a sitting and said that India is a nation of 18% with no one in the country. There is no leader.
In this regard, a video of Jan Swaraj chief Prashant Kishor is circulating on social media and is being shared on WhatsApp among Muslims as a large section of Muslims feel that they have been left behind. are or are under-represented.
We tried to get information about this video and when it is, so we got in touch with Mohammad Taslim, a young man who runs the YouTube Urdu channel of Jan Swaraj Organisation, who said that he had seen this video on December 29 in Darbhanga Sadar. It was recorded in an event held in the city and it was uploaded by him on social media.
In this 57-second video, Prashant Kishore mentions the lack of leaders and lack of effort among Muslims.
In a viral video, he addressed a gathering of Muslims and said: ‘There is a nation of 18 percent, there must be a reason why you have no leader in the country. At 18 percent, you are the largest nation in India after Indonesia. Such a large population and you have no leader, no one has stood up from the society. So somewhere, your political thinking is lacking, brother!’
He added: ‘And the downside is that you don’t want to struggle. You are thinking that a Rahul Gandhi (Congress leader), Tejashwi Yadav (Lalu Prasad’s son and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister), a Prashant Kishor, a Mamata Banerjee will stand up. Let our fleet cross behind.
It cannot be, unless you stand up for the struggle, you cannot be well. We are not leaders who want your well-being. If you join us, we will not do you any good either. Why should others worry about the people who do not care about themselves?’
If some people are saying that his statement is based on reality and calling it a moment of thought for Muslims, then some are calling Prashant Kishor’s Bihar visit as an agenda of RSS.
While some people are saying that there is no national-level Muslim leader in India after Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Dr. Zakir Hussain, while some MPs are denying Prashant Kishor’s statement by calling Asaduddin Owaisi the leader of Muslims.
We spoke to Zain Shamsi, an assistant professor of Urdu and a well-known columnist in Bihar about this, and he said that after the independence or partition of India, the mindset of Muslims has become or has been created that India is a secular country. Since the partition was on the basis of religion, the Muslims who remained in India were well aware that they had to live with the Hindus and they had to live with different political parties.
If this is not the case and Muslims form another Muslim party on the basis of their population, then its destiny may be another Pakistan and perhaps this is the reason why Asaduddin Owaisi, the leading leader of Muslims and the head of Majlis Ittehad al-Muslimeen, is also There is no support from Muslims across the country.
According to Zain Shamsi, ‘Muslims considered themselves as a secular nation and under this political consciousness decided to support such political parties that work for the development of the country, the building of the country and the welfare of all.
“So he supported Janata Dal in some places, Lalu Prashad’s party in some places, Akhilesh Yadav in some places, Congress party in some places and Mamata Banerjee in Bengal.”
However, he said that the country in which Muslims continued to play their role as secular, gradually became religious and in such a changed situation, Prashant Kishor is right to some extent.
He said that ‘Hindu is doing politics on caste. Each caste has its own leader, its established politics. But Muslims cannot do politics on this basis and this may be a major reason for their lack of a leader.
He said that after independence Hindus were handled by politicians while Muslims were handled by scholars and that is why they could not enter politics.
“After the partition of India, a national leader like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad also had to contest from the Muslim majority area of Rampur because he was seen as a Muslim leader.”
Zain Shamsi humorously said that ‘Muslims are the axis of Indian politics. Although they don’t have a leader, they produce leaders, like they made Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Mamata Banerjee leaders and gave them the reins of the state, similarly they made Modi a leader. In other words, anti-Muslim hostility is also a guarantee of becoming a leader.
We tried to contact Prashant Kishore to know the details about this but he said to contact after January 5. Meanwhile, Mohammad Taslim, Urdu media manager of his organization Jan Swaraj, while talking to BBC, said that Prashant Kishor has been visiting Bihar on foot for almost a month and is working to awaken the people.
He has previously addressed Muslims in Champaran, Sitamarhi and Darbhanga. He also shared several videos of Prashant Kishor in which he is asking Muslims about the five daily prayers and faith, who will finally raise their voice.
In a video, he says that Muslim women across the country took to the streets against the controversial citizenship law, NRC and CAA, and continued to struggle for months, but that law did not stop and it stopped when Mamata Banerjee won the Bengal elections. Banerjee defeated the BJP.
Remember that Mamata Banerjee is credited with winning in Bengal and she said that if BJP gets more than 100 seats, she will quit politics.
In his opinion, Muslims need to come into electoral politics.
Mohammad Taslim said: ‘For example, in Bihar, there is talk of a Muslim-Yadav (a caste Hindu) alliance of MY, but it does not benefit the Muslims because the Muslims vote for the Yadav candidate. But Yadav does not vote for a Muslim candidate.’
We spoke to JDU-nominated former Member of Parliament (Upper House) and now BJP leader Sabir Ali regarding Prashant Kishor’s statement and he said that it is true to some extent.
He said that the Muslims were attracted by the shade tree they saw in the country, but it did not benefit them. Although many Muslim leaders got an opportunity in Indian politics, they did not use it enough for the good of their nation and the secular parties used them only as a vote bank.
He said that as far as Asaduddin Owaisi is concerned, this is his third generation in politics and he has never left Hyderabad, but since 2014 he has spread his feet in other states as well, but contrary to his expectations, Muslims I am also not very popular.
He said that there is a need to bring awareness and education among the Muslims, only after that they will be strong enough that their words will not be ignored.
We spoke to Mohammad Sohrab, a professor at the Academy of International Studies of Delhi’s renowned university, Jamia Millia Islamia, and a scholar with a close eye on Muslim issues. Somewhere in the heart. And the lack of leaders among Muslims is due to not being able to meet the demands of democracy and justice in the country.
He said that ‘constitutionalism is a model of democracy established in Lebanon, ie representation in the country on the basis of numbers. It is partly established in India as there are 136 to 140 constituencies in India which are reserved for a particular class from which a Muslim cannot contest but a Hindu can contest because it is in the name of caste. are specific.’
Prof. Sohrab said that as far as Prashant Kishor’s campaign is concerned, he is playing a dangerous game for Muslims. No party wants to put the representation of Muslims in its hands and this is where the relationship between the ruler and the subject becomes stable. If they are worried about uniting 18% of the country’s Muslims, behind the scenes they are uniting 80% of the country’s population against them.
He said that they are dragging the palanquin of BJP and RSS. The 18 percent they are modeling will have the effect of anti-Muslim polarization.
He asked, ‘Where are the Muslims in the power structure of India? Politically, they can be given more than their right in the form of dakshana (alms), but it cannot be given by recognizing their right.’
Muslim population in India is about 15% while in Bihar it is about 18%. Therefore, saying 18 percent across the country is a bit of an exaggeration.
Elections are going to be held in India this year and the political divide has already spread in which Muslims are very important in terms of their population, but which party will represent them, time will tell.