India is known all over the globe for its diversity. Nearly all the religions of the world co-exist here and all the communities register their handsome presence. In the Constitution, special arrangements have been made to give equal rights to all, majority and minority, but there are many sects and communities in India which have already been used by political parties for vote bank.
First of them has always been “Muslims”. The reason for this has always been the lack of a good strong leader who also has a good head on his shoulders. The leaders especially the Muslim leaders, have only indulged in appeasement politics. Today, there is no leader in this section who can lead the Muslims and simultaneously usher them in the new-modern-era. If we look at the “able” Muslim leaders in the fray currently, there is only one leader who stands out, someone who can keep things in a well-ordered fashion for the Muslims as a community and that is none other than the hard-taskmaster, the newly appointed governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammad Khan.
The reason we are talking about a strong Muslim leader in the country is that Zainab Sikander of ThePrint, who openly supported triple talaq, said in an article that “Muslims in India need a leader like Shashi Tharoor” who stays connected to his culture and talks about reforms in the modern era. However, if looked at, there is another leader whom the Muslim society can look up to for progressive thinking with reforms and that is Arif Mohammad Khan as established above.
Khan has been working for the improvement of Muslim society since his student politics days. He has been advocating for the progress of Islam along with the rights of Muslim women. In the Shahbano case in 1984, when Rajiv Gandhi’s government overturned the Supreme Court’s decision by enacting law through the Parliament, he resigned as Union Minister in protest against the government’s decision.
Arif Mohammad Khan is known as a progressive Muslim face. He had also articulated his views on important issues like triple talaq and described it as a good decision for Muslim women. A few months ago, during an interview on triple talaq, he also lashed out on journalists like Arfa Khanum for their orthodox Islamic views. When the controversial journalist Karan Thapar asked Arif Mohammad Khan whether Khan is worried about the fact that there is not a single Muslim MP in the Modi government and not a single Muslim candidate was in the fray in elections in a state like Uttar Pradesh, the response that Khan gave shut down Mr. Thapar instantly. Khan said, “I don’t worry about it, and how is this even a question of concern? In fact till now, we have not been able to get out of the colonial mindset.” He further explained, “Basically it is the idea of the Britishers who filled our mind with the notion that only a Muslim can represent Muslims, only a specific person coming from a specific community can represent that community. And this is the reason why separate electorates were enacted.”
Before independence, the country was partitioned by the obnoxious deviance of Mohammad Ali Jinnah on the basis of religion and even today, if someone comes from the Muslim community, it is only seen through the lens of potential “Muslim vote”. There is a massive vote bank and every party needs this vote bank in stock to hold power. And it is getting stronger decade after decade. Muslim leaders have increased in stature in all national and regional parties of the country.
Few of the most famous Muslim leaders within the country in the opposition today are Asaduddin Owaisi and Azam Khan. Owaisi is known for his fiery and sometimes controversial statements and at the same time, he also maintains a fair hold amongst Muslim voters in predominantly Muslim areas, especially Hyderabad and Secunderabad. But his recent statements prove that he is not one of that progressive Muslim leader who accepts changes in the orthodox Islamic setup. He had opposed the government’s triple talaq bill, which in today’s era, even countries like Pakistan have rejected. The statements of Owaisi, who belongs to the party of tyrants in Hyderabad is vicious at times. Not only this, he also opposed the decision to repeal Article 370. Pakistan and the separatists have taken undue advantage of Article 370 and have pushed their propaganda in the Kashmir valley and even then Owaisi was against the abrogation of Article 370. Owaisi also continues to make controversial statements for appeasement and votes.
The other leader is Azam Khan. He has time and long appeased the Muslim for the Samajwadi Party, often due to his statements and the corruption he committed. With the rise of the Samajwadi Party in the 90s, Azam Khan emerged as its Muslim face, made communal statements as part of his dirty-politics. It was the sure shot way for Azam to appear strong amongst his supporters in the era of polarisation politics. He used it well both inside and outside the party. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission had banned the election-promotion campaign of Azam due to a controversial speech. Then, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, indecent comments against BJP candidate Jayaprada became the headlines all over the country. There were 4 lawsuits, and the EC had banned him for 72 hours. Such leaders look at their politics in a very old and orthodox way; they never talk about the progress of their own community by taking the vote of Muslim society. If we look at some of the other leaders too, it is no brainer that whether it is Hamid Ansari or Salman Khurshid, all of them have been practicing politics of appeasement only. There is no leader of any Muslim organization who can walk the talk and elevate the status of Muslims in the country.
Significantly, in the last seventy years after independence, a strange kind of discourse has been going on in the country and the politics of Muslim appeasement has become synonymous with secularism. The politics of caste has been called the politics of social justice, but talking of Hindu is considered as politics of communalism. The communal politics of Muslim appeasement under the guise of secularism from the country needs to end and the so-called voice of Muslims in the country should learn from Arif Mohammad Khan and try to emulate him.