‘Open to alliance in UP for LS polls on Muslim-Dalit-tribal combine’

LUCKNOW: While qestioning the ‘anti-BJP’ credentials of major players at the opposition meet in Patna on June 23, All India MajlisE-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief and Hyderabad MP Asaddudin Owaisi reiterated his party’s commitment towards political empowerment of Dalits, Muslims and tribals. He spoke to Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui on a range of political issues. . .

How do you look at the meeting of opposition parties in Patna?

It was like an old schoolboys’ network. It is a group of elitist politicians who have arrogated themselves this right to claim that only they can defeat the BJP. They have also chosen to ignore their political history where most of them had sailed with the BJP and some of them have done that more than once.

Can you elaborate on that?My problem is that they don’t seem to support the ideology of defeating communal forces. To begin with, Nitish Kumar has always chosen BJP over other supposedly secular political options. He was railway minister when Godhra happened and stayed with the BJP when Gujarat genocide followed. He sided with BJP to become Bihar CM. As Shiv Sena CM, Uddhav Thackeray stood inside Maharashtra Assembly and said he was proud that Shiv Sena had participated in the demolition of Babri Masjid. Arvind Kejriwal had supported BJP in abrogation of Article 370. It was because of the Congress that BJP had come to power twice at the Centre. Where is the ideological commitment to take on the BJP?

What, according to you, is the future of this opposition unity?The Persian proverb byNizamuddin Auliya “Hanuz Dilli Door Ast” (Delhi is yet far away) – sums it up better.

Who do you think will be the likely PM candidate from the opposition?

We don’t want Narendra Modi to be the Prime Minister in 2024. For this, the political fight has to be on all 543 Lok Sabha seats. If there would be a face to contest one-on-one against Narendra Modi, it will be advantage BJP.

AIMIM was not invited for the meet nor was the BSP. Your comments. . .Not inviting AIMIM shows their political arrogance. It shows that they don’t accept any Muslim face at a meeting where leaders of every other caste and community were invited. They did not even invite Mayawati who is the tallest leader of the Dalit community. You cannot ignore her, particularly when SP’s Akhilesh Yadav claims he represents the Yadav community. Nitish Kumar says he represents Kurmis, Tejashwi again represents Yadavs, Mamata Banerjee says she has upper caste of her ‘Gotra’, Rahul Gandhi’s party has said he is a “Janeu Dhari”, Sharad Pawar claims to represent Marathas.

So your contention is that Dalits and Muslims were not adequately represented at the meet?

Parties which participated in the opposition meet are allergic to political empowerment of Dalits, Muslims and tribals. They want the three of us to be followers. They don’t want us to be equal political partners.

How do you look at the possibilities of an alliance with the Congress, BSP or any other party in Uttar Pradesh ahead of Lok Sabha polls?

I am comfortable with not entering into an alliance with parties which are allergic to even the idea of extending equality to Muslims. I am not dying to enter into an alliance with parties which are allergic to empowerment of Muslims. Can these parties together stand up and say that if elected, they would repeal the UAPA which Congress supported in 2019 and because of which hundreds of people are languishing in jail for years. As far as BSP is concerned, neither we have spoken to them nor have they contacted us on this issue.

Is it about who will make the first move?

No, no. There is no question of ego being involved in this. The truth is that neither of us have spoken to each other about it. I don’t know what will happen in the future. AIMIM is open to alliance in UP for Lok Sabha elections.

What are the possibilities of attempts to shape your formula of ‘Jai Bheem-Jai Meem’ that you mooted in the 2017 elections?

We are committed towards having a political leadership of Dalits, Muslims and Adivasis (tribal). The stark reality of Indian politics is that every other caste and community have a semblance of their leadership. But Muslims, Dalits and tribals have no independent political leadership which is recognized at the state and national level.

AIMIM and SP have not been on good terms. Is it because of the common votebank (Muslims) both focus on?

Selective amnesia is not good. Both SP and Congress have used Muslims as vote bank and nothing more. Akhilesh was the chief minister when 50,000 Muslims were displaced in Muzaffarnagar riots and he did not visit them even once. In the 1980s, Muslims voted en masse for the Congress in assembly elections. The highest number of people were killed in police firing in Moradabad that too on the day of Eid. Why are you forgetting that? Why didn’t the Congress government and Sharad Pawar extend reservation to Muslims in Maharashtra when they were in power despite Bombay High Court saying that yes Muslims are the most educationally backward?

Courtesy : TOI

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