CURRENT ISSUE JUNE 05, 2006

Muslim leaders and clerics in Uttar Pradesh are a rsetless lot as the state prepares to go to the Assembly polls soon. Last week, leaders, intellectuals and well-known clerics drawn from seven Muslim organisations and parties gathered in Lucknow to launch the People's Democratic Front (PDF). Its aim: religion-based politics with a mission to become a "proportionate power sharer" on the basis of community's "distinct electoral strength".
PDF convener Nehaluddin says the success of the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) has undoubtedly inspired them to form the front under the patronage of the highest echelons of religious scholars. Well-known Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, who was elected PDF's interim president, adds, "Politics without religion becomes haven for anti-social elements. We have come to realise that religion can be a perfect guiding force for politics".

The PDF comprises the All India Muslim Forum headed by Nehaluddin, the Parcham Party of India, the Momin Conference, the Indian National League, Muslim Majlis, the National Loktantrik Party and the Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, besides the Jamat-e-Islami Hind Uttar Pradesh, so far known as an apolitical socio-religious organisation. However, the PDF declares that "the front is willing to forge alliances with those political parties that accept Muslims as an independent political unit within the democratic and constitutional framework of the country and accepts our minimum common programme".

The purpose of creting the new outfit on the eve of the Assembly polls is clear. Jawwad says Muslims constitute 20-25 per cent of the electorate in more than 125 of the 403 Assembly constituencies while in 60 seats, the Muslim population was between 35 to 40 per cent and they were a deciding factor in about 147 constituencies in Uttar Pradesh. The Maulana lamented that while the Yadavs with only seven per cent of the population and Dalits with 12 per cent of the population have come to power, the Muslims who constitute 23 per cent were nowhere in the picture. So far, all political parties in the state have treated them as a 'use-and-throw' objects, he adds.

The leaders do not hide their anguish over the politics being played by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. Says Arshad Khan of the National Loktantrik Party: "Mulayam created and filled up 1,800 posts in the police department recently and 1,100 of them went to Yadavs while only 30 Muslims were selected. Now we will judge which political party in the state is the real friend of Muslims."

But before the PDF can take on its agenda, fissures have developed within. The Parcham Party and Majlis-e-Mushawarat have suddenly walked out of the organisation. On the other hand, Maulana Ahmad Bokhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid who was named as the chief patron, did not turn up to attend the meeting of leaders and ulemas due to "bad weather" in Delhi and Lucknow and later expressed his anguish over the manner in which the PDF was announced hurriedly. He wanted a "viable" political Muslim front. Finding himself being isolated by the PDF, Bokhari who has been struggling to project himself as the sole spokesperson of the entire community, flew down to Lucknow to meet the leaders saying he would make efforts to bring all the groups on one platform. But Maulana Jawwad, who enjoys the respect of a large section of both Shias and Sunnis, made it clear that there was no question of going back on the formation of the PDF.

According to him the crisis suddenly developed because Maulana Bokhari wanted to announce the formation of the PDF himself but this could not happen as he did not reach on time. "He has been named its chief patron and the offer is still open". Maulana Bokhari has now decided to call a meeting of all Muslim organisations in Delhi on June 10 to discuss the issue.

The initial setback has, however, not detered the organisers as Minority Affairs Minister Haji Yaqoob Qureshi extended his support to the PDF as a sign of revolt against Mulayam. According to sources within the PDF, the division within the PDF has its roots in local politics and a clash of personalities.

National Loktantrik Party chief Dr Masood who was opposed to the formation of PDF in a hurry, sided with Maulana Bokhari while NLF's Arshad Khan became a constituent of the new outfit. Bokhari also has objections to the presence of some of the organisations.

Meanwhile, factions within the Shia community who are opposed to Maulana Jawwad and others have started criticising the formation of the PDF. Some leaders outside the new organisation also dislike the anti-Mulayam postures of the PDF. But Nehaluddin says "outsiders can't decide how the PDF should be formed or what it should do". According to him, it was natural for those who had been "trading Muslims' interests for political favours" to oppose the PDF which was "independent and intact".

Just before the formation of the PDF a restless Haji Yaqoob Qureshi, minister incharge of minority affairs, organised a massive rally in Delhi's Ramlila Maidan and favoured the formation of a separate political platform to force the government to launch programmes for the socio-educational and economic uplift of the community. Haji Qureshi, who had created a storm recently by announcing a Rs 51 crore reward for the beheading of the Danish cartoonist who drew cartoons of Prophet Mohammad, is a first time MLA from the Kharkhauda Assembly constituency in Meerut district. He launched an offensive against the Mulayam government and declared that if his demands for the uplift of the community was not met, he would quit the government. He has given three months' time to Mulayam.

This has not surprised anyone. Qureshi had deserted the BSP to join the Samajvadi Party to become a minister when Mulayam took over the reigns from Mayawati three years ago. Since then, he had been engaged in a bizarre hit-and-run game with a powerful minister Mohammad Azam Khan causing embarrassment to the chief minister. At a Delhi rally, considered one of the biggest in recent times, Qureshi thundered, "I have given just three months to Mulayam to consider his demands, failing which I will quit the ministry on the coming Independence Day".

The rally was dominated by people from Meerut and western Uttar Pradesh. The success of the rallym, on the other hand, has triggered a controversy. A group of teacher-members created a storm in the Vidhan Parishad by alleging that the "self-proclaimed Ashiq-e-Rasool" had adopted coercive tactics to force the madarsas to provide buses to ferry people from western Uttar Pradesh for the May 14 rally. The teacher-leaders, including Subhash Chandra Sharma, Om Prakash Sharma and Panchanan Rai, said that the minister had forced the officials of the minority welfare department to issue directives to the Madarsas. These institutions were threatened that if they did not co-operate, their grants would be stopped. Even the leader of the opposition, Dr Nepal Singh, said that the minister has crossed his limits and wondered why the chief minister was silent.

Although Mulayam is known for his pro-Muslim stance, the developments in the wake of the formation of the PDF may be more than he can handle.

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