The burden of being Muslim

For Asaduddin Owaisi, chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), it’s another day and another FIR. This time, it is registered by Delhi police. Mr Owaisi calls it “balance-vaad” on the part of the police: He is in the company of 30 other people, including Yati Narasinghanand, who called for the genocide of Muslims, and Nupur Sharma, former general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who said what she said. On his part, he still doesn’t know which exact tweet prompted the FIR.

But then, Mr Owaisi never holds back from poking the bear. Days after the BJP’s historic victory in 2014, he made an emotional speech during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, where in seven minutes he raked up everything: From the demolition of the Babri Masjid to the Godhra riots; from the killing of Ishrat Jahan to the murder of Mohsin Sadiq (the Pune techie who was killed in 2014 allegedly by members of the Hindu Rashtra Sena, an organisation about which little is known). BJP MPs roared “shame shame” as Mr Owaisi said: “I stand before you as the son of Ehsan Jafri. I stand before you as the brother of Ishrat Jahan. I stand before you as the uncle of Sadiq.”

And yet, this is a man whose belief and faith in the Indian Constitution are unshakeable. He has good days and bad days. On the bad ones, he reverts to reading the Constitution of India, which he has read many times. It makes him feel better, he recently told an interviewer.

He is opposed to the Congress because it failed the Muslims by viewing them as just a religious group, a vote bank whose patronage was assured by support to their religious practices. He doesn’t care that the Muslims have been stripped of the Haj subsidy: But would have been happier if that had been diverted to scholarships for the education of Muslim girls. This is why he believes it is important to have Muslim political representation: So that the community can speak for itself.

The AIMIM contested two recent Assembly elections seriously. In Maharashtra (2019), in some pockets, its vote share went up dramatically. In Dhule City and Malegaon Central, for instance, the AIMIM increased its vote by more than 20 per cent over the previous Assembly polls. In Malegaon Central in 2014, it got 12.5 per cent of the vote in 2014. In 2019, it got more than 58 per cent of the vote in the same constituency. Similarly, in Dhule City, in 2014, it could not even save its deposit: It got just 2.4 per cent of the vote. But in 2019, it managed to get 28 per cent and won the seat.

The party repeated its surprising success in Bihar (2020). In the Amour Assembly constituency, its vote share went up from 1.1 per cent in 2015 to 51.1 per cent in 2020. In the Kochadhaman Assembly constituency, it went up from 26.1 per cent to 49.25 per cent. In Kishanganj, from 9.6 per cent, it went up to 23.4 per cent. In Baisi, from 10.3 per cent it went up to 38.2 per cent.

Its performance in West Bengal, however, was sub-par and even more so in Uttar Pradesh, where it got just 0.5 per cent of the vote and, in many cases, ensured the BJP’s victory. But that has not dimmed Mr Owaisi’s appetite for battle. He prefers to fight alone — the AIMIM stayed out of election in Assam [where it had the option of either tying up or contesting Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front]. Similarly, it says it will not enter Kerala because the Indian Union Muslim League is already in the electoral arena. Only in Telangana has it sought the support of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi. He seems to relish the cut and thrust of battle — every “engagement” with Hindutva leaders wins him support in his own constituency. In 2016, for instance, he challenged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement that those who shied away from saying “Bharat Mata ki jai” should not live in India. Mr Owaisi said he had no particular objection to the slogan, but he would not chant it because he resented having to keep proving his patriotism. He says only a handful of Muslims from the rest of India have travelled to fight the “jihad” in Kashmir. Most of the Indian Muslims who joined Daesh were boys living or studying abroad. Al Qaeda has a negligible number of Indian Muslims. And yet, for a Muslim in India, some things are mandatory: He will be considered Indian only if he criticises Pakistan (and that includes cheering for India in cricket matches), attacks Islamic leadership, and basically carries the burden of secularism. Mr Owaisi believes everyone — not Muslims alone — must fight for secularism. His clarity and articulation make him a target.