Persistent calls for a separate Telangana have forced the Muslim minority to take a firm stand against the demand that recalls a history of oppression , which still haunts them, says HNN Editor in Chief M H Ahsan
The fear psychosis that has gripped Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimoon (MIM) and other organizations about the future prospects of Muslims in a separate Telangana state goes beyond the community, if one scrutinizes the manifestoes of the principal political players battling for their own turfs in that region as it lurches towards statehood.
What is at stake is not only the future of Muslims who are apprehensive over the likelihood of RSS calling the shots on behalf of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). There is also a question mark over the future of economic development of Telangana, given the fact that all the dominant players, especially TRS and Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) of Telugu mega star Chiranjeevi, are bending over backward to court the landless labourers of Telangana.
Past experience has shown that when parties come to power, their own interests take precedence. Development programs are placed on the back burner unless they translate into lucrative deals for politicians. The TRS, which calls itself the pink party, symbolizing its determination to help the poor, has constructed its headquarters—Telangana Bhavan—on a one-acre plot on No.10 Banjara Hills. According to the TRS website, the party sees it as a “light house” steering the statehood movement. What arouses concern among the people is whether this light house will guide everyone towards the shores of economic development or shine its light selectively and leave others to fend for themselves.
The current political scenario suggests that all the parties are playing the game of one-upmanship to woo the farmers and landless labourers. This has also prompted the BJP to jump on board the Telangana bandwagon and feather its own nest. As a result, the political temperature in the Telangana region is shooting up, paving the way for the realignment of political forces in the region. Its impact has also been felt on the Muslim United Forum (MUF), a 12-member amalgamation comprising political, religious and social groups. What has knit them together is their common cause for a united Andhra Pradesh.
Their opposition to the formation of a new state is prompted by their deep-rooted fear that history may repeat itself, this time under the garb of a ‘Saffron Telangana’ even if the pawns on the political chess board seem to make innocuous moves by claiming that small is beautiful. As senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj explained recently, her party has revved up the agitation for a separate Telangana state, as it supports the concept of smaller States.
But MIM dismisses such talk as a political self-deception. "Muslim opposition to a separate Telangana is not new. We opposed Telangana state during the violent agitation in 1969 too. And this opposition has continued till date," Asaduddin Owaisi, the new boss of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), told HNN.
"So, how can Congress ignore the apprehensions of this big group of minorities," the MIM leader asked. As an indicator of the shape of things to come if a new state is formed, he cited the Vatoli incident in which a family of six Muslims was beaten and burnt to death in a Telangana village. However, the stand taken by the Muslim leadership has put the Congress brass in a dilemma. It risks alienating the community if it flows with the tide. On the contrary, it could cede ground to its political opponents, including Telugu Desam Party, which made a volta-face on separate Telangana, if it vetoes the move.
The stakes are high. MIM, which is a part of MUF and has five legislators and one MP from Hyderabad, would like to see the city as a union territory should a separate Telangana state become inevitable. "Give us our Hyderabad back," the late MIM President Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi once remarked during a meeting with the chief minister. Owaisi, who represented Hyderabad in the Lok Sabha for two decades, was obviously referring to Muslim rule over this 400-year-old city.
Muslims constitute about 40 percent of the four million population of Hyderabad. Their population in nine other districts of the region varies from eight to 15 percent. Muslim reluctance, in the face of overwhelming support for a Telangana state, has a rationale behind it, say leaders of the Muslim United Forum (MUF), of which MIM is a member. It .could sharpen the political divide and jeopardise the interests of the minorities. The forum leaders feel that the notorious Razakar movement during the Telangana armed struggle rankles the memories of the average Telangana Hindu and the political parties.
This has distorted their general perception about Muslims, whom they tar with the same brush. "Razakars” (volunteers), the brutal Muslim private army during the Nizam's regime, had persecuted innocent people in connivance with Deshmuks and other feudal landlords. Though more than 50 per cent of the population was non-Muslim, the Telangana armed struggle was basically projected as anti-Muslim," says Sk Yusuf Baba, an analyst.
Following the police action against the armed struggle during the 1950s, several thousand Muslim men were killed by hoodlums, their women raped or forced to commit suicide by leaping into wells to safeguard their honour. Muslim properties were torched and their agricultural lands were confiscated, resulting in an exodus from the affected rural areas and towns to Hyderabad. However, the deep-seated communal hatred against Muslims living in several outlying districts of Marathwada and the Hyderabad-Karnatak region of erstwhile Hyderabad state, unleashed a reign of terror and brutalities against them. But this dark chapter in Telangana’s history has remained a dark secret, he claimed.
In the light of this tragic flashback into its history, Moulana Hameeduddin Auqil Hussami, Chairman of MUF and a prominent religious scholar, said. the division of the state is a nightmare for Muslims. "In the interest of the community, the Muslims have remained united as far as an undivided state is concerned," he notes.
After being transformed from rulers to subjects overnight, following the police action against the Nizam's Hyderabad state in 1948, Muslims were seized with an acute sense of insecurity resulting from the trifurcation of Hyderabad , which divided them into three political and geographical entities. With the change in official language in government offices, thousands of Muslim employees, who knew only Urdu, remained jobless and were chucked out of their jobs. Thus, the socio-economic deprivation of the Muslims, which began in the early 1950s, got accentuated with their systematic exploitation by the people of Telangana.
It also revives bitter memories of past events that culminated in the signing of the Gentlemen's Agreement in 1956 by Andhra and Telangana leaders for the implementation of domicile rules. Known as Hyderabad Mulki Rules, they stipulated a 12- year domicile in the Telangana area as a minimum period to qualify for mulki (a local). status. This agreement triggered clashes between the Sunni migrants and the local Shias. Even though there was a large-scale migration of Shias from rural areas and towns in Telangana districts to Hyderabad, they were still subservient to the Sunnis who dominated the socio-political and economic fields of activity of the community.
According to Moulana Auqil, an attempt was made in 1969 by the then Chief Minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy to create a rift between the Sunnis and Shias over a separate Telangana issue. "The leaders, particularly of MIM, are elite Sunnis, who constitute a minority group among Muslims opposing a separate Telangana state for the reasons cited above. These leaders had played into the hands of Chief Minister Reddy, who used them as a tool in muzzling the Telangana movement in 1969.
Today, they are being instigated by the present Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy who is vehemently opposed to the Telangana movement," an analyst on Muslim affairs told TSI. "The powerful minority Sunnis, who were outsiders and settled here during the Nizam's regime, have gradually emerged as the representatives of the poor, forlorn Shias. And now these leaders are in the process of making the Muslim masses a party to their intrigues."
But this argument was dismissed as 'ridiculous' by a MIM leader who was quick to point out that in the event of the formation of a new state, the tally of the seats of their party will go up in the elections. Referring to the inter-ethnic competition and Sunni supremacy on the political scene, a social analyst and poet Syed Yakoob said ethnicity may develop in response to the domestic need to acquire status rather than as a result of any other consideration. Muslims constitute 9.2 per cent of Andhra Pradesh's population of 76 million, as per the 2001 census. Their population in nine other districts of the Telangana region is about 17 per cent. They constitute about 40 per cent of the four million population of Hyderabad
The MUF leaders point out that what raises their concern is the fact that the Telangana movement has been hijacked by parties like the BJP and the so-called secular TRS, which claims to represent the cultural face of Telangana. This is just a façade, as it is dominated by leaders with their roots in the RSS. This breeds a sense of insecurity among Muslims in the event of a separate state coming into existence. For instance, A. Narendra, who holds number two slot in the TRS, resigned from the BJP to join the TRS and become a staunch supporter of party chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao. But he still retains his links with the RSS and was implicated by some Muslim groups for his role in the Hyderabad communal riots in the past.
The TRS also got a booster dose from BJP leader and prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani when he extended his party’s support for a separate state in order to speed up its development. “We want that you people have your own state soon,” Advani said while addressing TRS workers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi recently.
Against this backdrop, it is not difficult to understand why the BJP reiterates its support to the TRS on the issue of carving a separate state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh. What distances the MUF leadership further from the TRS is the latter’s bid to keep Muslim leaders in the dark during the ongoing negotiations over the separatist issue.
TRS pledge to work for the downtrodden also needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Reporting on the inauguration of the Telangana Bhavan on Banjara Hill, The Times of India said that besides the initial outlay of Rs. 5 crores, an equal amount will have to be raised to equip the party’s headquarters with all amenities. Big business houses have reportedly pitched in with the balance amount to complete the building surmounted by a large dome resembling the White House.
With a built-up area of about 40,000 sq ft, it is said to be the largest office building of any political party in the country. These events fuel doubt and speculation whether TRS will live up to the expectation of its people for a rosy future with the formation of a separate Telangana state. Whether the pink party can deliver on its promise is the issue.
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