News Analysis India

Tag: Muslims

  • Secularism has harmed Muslims, says AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday asked Muslims to shun “political secularism” saying it has not helped the socially and educationally backward sections of the community in getting a quota in jobs and education.

    Addressing a rally in suburban Mumbai, Owaisi said he believes in secularism enshrined in Constitution.

    “What did Muslims get out of secularism? We did not get a reservation in jobs and education. We didn’t have participation in decision-making…no rights,” the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president said, adding that the word secularism has harmed Muslims.

    In Maharashtra, only 22 per cent of Muslims take admission in primary schools while only 4.9 per cent of Muslims graduate.

    He said 83 per cent of Muslims in Maharashtra are landless.

    “Does the heart of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena beat only for Marathas?” he questioned.

    The standard of living of Marathas is much higher compared to Muslims in Maharashtra, he claimed.

    Referring to the imposition of section 144 of CrPC in Mumbai, which was brought in to check the spread of Omicron variant of coronavirus, Owaisi questioned if prohibitory orders will remain in place when Rahul Gandhi visits the Maharashtra capital later this month.

    “That time it will not be Omircron but power…,” he said.

    The Hyderabad MP said Congress and NCP joined hands with Sena for power and forgot the assurance of implementing a 5 per cent quota in jobs and education for the Muslim community.

    “Congress and NCP blame AIMIM for cutting secular votes. Is Shiv Sena secular? When (Sena president and Maharashtra CM) Uddhav Thackeray says in the legislature that he is proud that Shiv Sainiks destroyed the Babri mosque then these two parties kept quiet,” Owaisi said.

    The NCP and Congress are partners in the Sena-headed Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

    The erstwhile Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra had provided 5 per cent reservation to Muslims in jobs and education in 2014.

    The Bombay HC quashed the Maratha quota but upheld the Muslim quota in education.

    Opposition alleges that between 2014 and 2019, the issue of implementing this quota for Muslims was allegedly not taken up by the then BJP-Shiv Sena government.

    Speaking at the same rally, Aurangabad MP and Maharashtra AIMIM chief Imtiyaz Jaleel, who travelled to Mumbai by road from his constituency in Marathwada in 13 hours, alleged all attempts were made to stop him from reaching Mumbai.

    “Mumbai lo main aa gaya…” he told the charged audience.

    He thanked the police saying they were acting on orders from the top.

    “They were doing their job and I am doing my job,” Jaleel said.

    “We have to question the government on (the failure to implement) 5 per cent quota (for Muslims) and irregularities in Waqf land,” he said.

    Jaleel alleged that prohibitory orders in Mumbai are an excuse to stop the AIMIM rally.

    “Is the Omicron variant spreads only on December 11 and 12? Will it go away on December 13?” he asked.

    Jaleel alleged that Muslims have been used as a “toy” for securing votes during elections.

    He said Muslims should learn from Marathas on the quota demand.

    Jaleel alleged that 93,000 acres of Waqf land have been misappropriated and that he has lodged nine FIRs so far as he is a member of the Waqf Board.

    “Despite the Bombay High Court upholding 5 per cent quota in education and jobs for Muslims, the decision hasn’t been implemented. When Congress and NCP were in opposition, they would fight with BJP and Sena for implementing the quota for Muslims. But now despite being in power for two years, nothing has happened on the quota front,” he said.

    Jaleel said heavy police deployment at Vashi while entering Mumbai made him think whether he was an MP or a terrorist.

    “I was stopped by a police officer asking me to remove the tricolour from my vehicle. I was told that I will not be allowed to proceed with the flag. I told the police that they can keep my vehicle. I will walk to Mumbai with the tricolour,” he said.

    Jaleel said the country can’t progress if Muslims are deprived of their rights.

  • UP assembly polls: Owaisi factor worry parties banking on Muslim vote bank

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, which is going to contest next year’s Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on the promise of creating leadership among Muslims, has created unease in the political parties that so far considered the members of the minority community as their core “vote bank”.

    Different castes, including Jatavs, Yadavs, Rajbhars and Nishads, which constitute a relatively small part of the population of Uttar Pradesh, more or less have their own leadership, but Muslims, who account for more than 19 per cent of the people in the state, do not see any united leadership.

    So the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Owaisi, wants to end the “slavery” of Muslims in the hands of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress, which had been using them as their “vote bank”, according to the leaders of the party.

    There are 82 Assembly segments in the state where Muslim voters are in a position to make or mar the political fortunes of the candidates.

    Buoyed by winning five seats in last year’s Bihar polls from the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region, which gave jitters to the RJD and the Congress, Owaisi has already announced that his party will field candidates in 100 of the 403 seats in the Uttar Pradesh election expected to be held early next year.

    The Hyderabad MP launched his poll campaign from Ayodhya earlier this month and since then, has been addressing public meetings at different places.

    AIMIM national spokesperson Syed Asim Waqar told PTI on Sunday that the main goal of the party is to create a political narative and leadership among Muslims for the progress of the community and a better future.”Even the so-called secular parties, which were getting the votes of the Muslims, never allowed a Muslim leadership to emerge.

    The report of the Sachar Committee has made out the condition in which the parties have pushed them to,” he said.

    The opinions of experts differ on whether Muslims, after the rise of Hindutva politics, have become aware enough to create their own acceptable leadership.

    The SP and the BSP have accused Owaisi of serving the interest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by trying to divide Muslim votes and dismissed any possibility of the AIMIM having any impact in the country’s political heartland.

    Senior SP leader Abu Azmi discarded Owaisi as a “vote-katwa” (splitter of votes) who is acting on behalf of the BJP to damage the poll prospects of the Samajwadi Party.

    State media coordinator of the Congress Lallan Kumar said Owaisi remembers Muslims only at the time of elections and claimed that the minority community has traditionally supported the grand old party.

    However, political analyst Parvez Ahmed believes that this time, the “Owaisi factor” will definitely have an impact in Uttar Pradesh.

    “The reason for this is that after the rise of hardline Hindutva politics in the country, a large section of Muslims has started to understand the importance of their separate leadership.

    The SP, the BSP and other parties that claim to be Muslim-friendly have been silent on the issues of Muslims.

    “The idea is now gaining strength among Muslims that if it they do not have a leadership of their own, the atrocities against them will only increase,” he said.

    At this juncture, Owaisi is not the target of the BJP but of those parties that have so far been trying to get the votes of Muslims on the basis of their fear of the saffron party, Ahmed said.

    He said another section of the Muslims also thinks what harm has the BJP done to them.

    “The Muzaffarnagar riots, which left a mark of fear on the minds of Muslims, took place not during the BJP’s rule but during the SP regime.

    During the regime of (Chief Minister) Yogi Adityanath, there was no such riot in which Muslims were specifically targeted.

    The share of Muslims in government jobs in the state is less than two per cent, while the Congress and other non-BJP parties ruled the state for the longest time,” Ahmed pointed out.

    According to Census 2011 data, Muslims account for 19.26 per cent of the population in Uttar Pradesh.

    Muslims constitute 50.57 per cent of the population in Rampur, 47.12 per cent in Moradabad, 43.04 per cent in Bijnor, 41.95 per cent in Saharanpur, 41.3 per cent in Muzaffarnagar, 40.

    78 per cent in Amroha and above 30 per cent in Balrampur, Azamgarh, Bareilly, Meerut, Bahraich, Gonda and Shravasti.

    According to political analyst Rasheed Kidwai, the issue of giving leadership to Muslims has come up more or less in every election in Uttar Pradesh but never took off and the Muslims often voted for the SP and the BSP.

    Owaisi’s party will contest the Uttar Pradesh polls as part of the “Bhagadari Morcha” formed by Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar.

  • Muslims should bow to ‘Indian culture’; Ram, Krishna, Shiva were their ancestors: Uttar Pradesh Minister

    By PTI

    BALLIA: Uttar Pradesh minister Anand Swaroop Shukla has said that lord Ram, Krishna, and Shiva were the ancestors of Indian Muslims and they should bow to the “land and culture of India”.

    In provocative remarks here, the minister of state for parliamentary affairs also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have defeated the mindset which intended to create an Islamic State in the country by raising the flag of Hindutva and “Indian culture”.

    Presenting the account of Adityanath government’s work during the last four-and-a-half-years before the media on Thursday evening, Shukla said: “The ancestors of the Muslims of India are lord Ram, Krishna and Shankar (Shiva). They do not need to see the land of Kaaba. These people should bow to the land and culture of India.

    ” After Syria and Afghanistan, some people from different countries want to make the world an Islamic State. Some in India have this mindset too.

    But, the Modi and Adityanath governments at the Centre and state have raised the flag of Hindutva and “Indian culture” in the country and defeated this mindset, Shukla said.

    Referring to controversial posters put up in Sambhal recently, Shukla said they were the outcome of Samajwadi Party’s support to Islamic terrorists and its MP Shaifur Rehman Barq’s statement supporting the Taliban.

    Posters calling Sambhal the land of the “ghazis”, an apparent reference to Islamic warriors, had come up ahead of AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s meeting there earlier this week.

    The BJP had strongly objected to the posters, after which they were removed by workers of the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

    Shukla said ghazis have been completely eradicated from Uttar Pradesh.

    Such powers will not be able to raise their heads in future, he said.

    Attacking Owaisi, Shukla said his ancestors wanted to make Hyderabad a separate nation but could not succeed.

    “There are still people with such mentality. These are stupid people. Their ancestors became Muslims out of fear. This kind of thinking cannot flourish under the Modi and Adityanath governments,” he said.

  • Muslims can never become majority in India as their fertility rate decreasing: Digvijaya

    #39;I will prove that Muslims can never become a majority community in this country leaving behind Hindus as the fertility rate of Muslims is decreasing. #39;

  • Britishers created communication gap between Hindu and Muslims, claims RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

    By Express News Service

    MUMBAI: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Monday said Britishers made Hindus and Muslims fight by creating misconception, at a symposium on the topic of ‘Rashtra Pratham – Rashtra Sarvopari’ in Mumbai

    RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat met intellectuals from the Muslim community at a five-star hotel in Mumbai, where he said that Britishers told Muslim that you will not get anything in majority Hindu India because in democracy, the majority rules.

    “Britisher told Muslims that the Hindus will only get elected because they are in majority in a democracy. Muslims will not get anything. Their demands will not be fulfilled as well. Besides, Britishers told Muslims that they won’t get anything if they decided to live with Hindus, that only Hindus will be elected and exhorted them to demand a separate (nation). They said Islam will disappear from India. Did it happen? No. Muslims can hold all posts. Since the time of arrivals of Muslim rulers and till today, the Muslim religion has not disappeared. It is very much there. So, the wrong information was spread. The Muslim can also get posts and positions in India. There are many who are getting it and continue to achieve it,” Bhagwat said.

    He further said they (Britishers) created a misconception. “They told Hindus that Muslims are extremists. They made both the communities fight. As a result of that fight and trust deficit, both have been talking about keeping a distance from each other. We need to change our vision.  They always fanned the clashes between two communities. And that caused a communication gap between two communities, rather than bridging it, we following the wrong people and widening it. We have to find out the permanent solution by going to root cause of this disease,” Mohan Bhagwat added.

    The Muslim outreach program was arranged by Global Strategic Policy Foundation Pune in Mumbai’s luxury hotel.

  • Muslims bag major share of minority scholarships

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Of the total scholarships sanctioned for minority communities from 2018 to 2021, Muslims have received 76 per cent,  followed by Christians at 12.04 per cent, according to data submitted by the Ministry of Minority Affairs in Parliament.

    The break-up of scholarships sanctioned during the last three years showed Sikhs got 7.88 per cent, Buddhists 2.70 per cent,  Jains 1,23 per cent and Parsis 0.014 per cent, respectively. According to the 2011 Census, Muslims constitute 73.66 per cent of the total minority population, followed by Christians at 11.9 per cent. While Sikhs constitute 8.91 per cent, Buddhists form 3.61 per cent. Parsis constitute 0.02 per cent of India’s minority population.

    The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements pre-matric, post-matric, merit-cum-means based scholarship schemes and the Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship Scheme for the educational empowerment of students belonging to six notified minority communities — Buddhist, Christian, Jain, Muslim, Parsi and Sikh in all states/UTs across the country.

    During the last seven years, more than 4.52 crore beneficiaries have been provided scholarships through the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), according to the ministry. Of the total beneficiaries, 53 per cent are female, it said.

    With the launch of the NSP in 2015-16 and its revamped version in 2016-17, the three scholarship schemes for minorities are being implemented through DBT mode. The NSP has features which help eliminate middlemen, and ghost beneficiaries. During 2016-17 to 2020-21, a total of 9,35,977 fake and ineligible applicants were identified and removed from NSP, according to the ministry. On assessing the number of minorities living below the poverty line, there was no separate assessment available, said the ministry in reply to a query.

  • OIC meets India envoy, seeks to send team to see Jammu & Kashmir situation

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The Secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a 57-member grouping, sought to send a delegation to Jammu and Kashmir and raised issues concerning the situation of Muslims in India, in a meeting with India’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. The rare meeting between an Indian diplomat and an OIC secretary general was held on July 5 in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah.

    “The Secretary General welcomed Ambassador Ausaf Sayeed and reviewed with him a number of issues concerning the situation of Muslims in India, along with the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and relevant UN and OIC resolutions opposing any unilateral actions on the issue,” a statement from the OIC noted.

    Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindham Bagchi said the meeting was held on the request of the Islamic bloc. 

    “A wide range of issues was discussed. Our ambassador conveyed the need to correct some of the misperceptions about India that are being perpetrated by the vested interests in the OIC,” Bagchi said.Ambassador Sayeed told the OIC to ensure that its platform is not used by those with vested interest to make comments on India’s internal affairs or to spread anti-India propaganda through biased and one-sided resolutions, Bagchi said.

    India has maintained that the OIC has no locus standi on Kashmir, and had, in the past, called out the grouping for making unwarranted references to India in its resolutions. New Delhi had also raised concerns that Pakistan is trying to use the OIC as an anti-India platform.

  • Remove BJP leaders who ‘harassed’ Muslims if true to your words: Digvijaya Singh to RSS chief

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat asserted that the DNA of all Indians is the same, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday said if Bhagwat is true to his words, he must give directions that all those BJP leaders who “harassed” innocent Muslims be removed from their posts.

    Singh, however, added that Bhagwat will not do so, alleging that there is a difference between his words and actions.

    In his address at an event ‘Hindustan First Hindustani Best’ organised by the Muslim Rashtriya Manch in Ghaziabad on Sunday, Bhagwat also took on those indulging in lynching.

    “Cow is a holy animal, but those involved in lynching are against Hindutva,” he had said.

    Bhagwat had also said that though at times, some “false cases” of lynching have been registered against some people.

    AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi hit back at Bhagwat over his remarks, saying those criminals who carried out lynching may not know the difference between a cow and a buffalo but the names of Junaid, Akhlaq, Pehlu, Rakbar, Alimuddin were enough for them to kill.

    This hatred is the product of Hindutva and these criminals have the patronage of a government backing Hindutva, the president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) alleged.

    “Cowardice, violence and murder are an integral part of Godse’s Hindutva thinking.

    The lynching of Muslims is also the result of this thinking,” he said in a series of tweets in Hindi.

    Tagging a report on the RSS chief’s remarks that the DNA of all Indians is the same and those asking Muslims to leave the country cannot call themselves Hindus, Singh said, “Mohan Bhagwat ji, will you pass on these views to your disciples, preachers, Vishwa Hindu Parishad/Bajrang Dal workers also? Will you pass on these teachings to Modi-Shah ji and BJP chief minister also?” “Mohan Bhagwat ji, if you make it obligatory for your disciples to follow this thought, I will become your admirer,” the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.

    Alleging that the RSS had instilled “hatred” between Hindus and Muslims, Singh said it was now not easy to remove the “seeds of hatred” sown against Muslims from “Saraswati Shishu Mandir to the intellectual training provided by the Sangh.”

    “If you are honest with the views you expressed, then issue directions to remove all those leaders in the BJP, who have harassed innocent Muslims, from their posts immediately.

    Start with (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (UP Chief Minister) Yogi Adityanath,” the Congress leader said. Referring to Bhagwat’s remarks giving primacy to being Indian, Singh asked Bhagwat to explain this to his disciples first as they “advised me to go to Pakistan many times”.

  • Keep families small, Assam CM Sarma tells Muslims

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI:  Calling upon the minority community to “practise small family size” to reduce poverty, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday warned of conflicts for living space in future if the population continued to explode.

    The statement came against the backdrop of the eviction of 200 encroachers, mostly immigrant Muslims, drawing criticism from some quarters. Urging the minority-based political party AIUDF and All Assam Minority Students’ Union to work on population control, Sarma said a day would come when people would settle down on the land of Kamakhya Temple, leading to conflicts.

    He said his government would take steps to encourage population control. The government stands for the development of all communities but it will need community support, he said.  “To remove poverty, we have to educate Muslim women and control population. We are there to educate women. However, poverty will never get reduced unless you control your population,” Sarma said.

  • Concerted effort by some to regard Muslims as ‘others’: Former Vice President Hamid Ansari

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday lamented there is a concerted effort by some in the country to regard Muslims as “others” and stressed that India’s plural society has been the reality for centuries.

    Participating in a discussion on his book “By Many a Happy Accident: Recollections of a Life”, he said his Muslim-ness did not matter and his professional competence did.

    “There is a concerted effort from certain quarters to regard Muslims as others. Am I a citizen or not? If I am a citizen, I have the right to be a beneficiary of all things that flow out of citizenship,” he said, but did not elaborate.

    “A plural society was an existential reality in India for centuries,” he also noted.

    Former Union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who was also part of the discussion, said he and Ansari are both pained as the developments of the last several years are “threatening those who are Muslims”.

    “They feel threatened and therefore they are withdrawing,” he noted.

    “Muslim identity is being deliberately targeted in India and the current dispensation is targeting them viciously,” Chidambaram alleged.

    Ansari said the debate on Muslim identity is “somewhat superfluous” as each one has multiple identities.

    “I carry several identities all at the same time. Why should one identity be picked out simply to be ridiculed. A citizen is a citizen,” he said.

    Ansari said his experience as a professional diplomat for four decades did not talk about his Muslim-ness.

    “When I was in the UN at a difficult time my Muslim-ness did not matter. My professional competence mattered,” he said.

    Another Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said politics in recent years has narrowed the space for a person like Ansari in Indian public life.

    He said people like Ansari in public life are a pride for every India.

    “The prime minister and his people make no effort to conceal their disdain for many aspects of Islam, Muslim culture and are quite belligerent about it,” Tharoor alleged, noting that there is definitely going to be a challenge for Indian Muslims because of this.

    In “By Many a Happy Accident”, published by Rupa Publications, Ansari talks about his days in academia, diplomacy and then in the country’s second highest office for two consecutive terms (2007-2017).