A battle for the Muslim in Hyderabad

By M H Ahssan

A middle-aged woman in an autorickshaw stops Asaduddin Owaisi as he is on a vote seeking padayatra in the Habeebnagar area of Chandrayangutta. “Why haven’t you been seen here for years?” she asks. Asad, trained to be a lawyer, is quick to reply: “But everything is working fine here, isn’t it? Why do you need to see me when everything is ok?”

“We take care of all problems. So MP saheb does not have to come here,” Mohammed Khaja Moinuddin, area president of Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (MIM) tells this correspondent in an aside as Asad continues on his padayatra through an area where brightly painted houses with electricity meters and closed drains does not convey the impression of it being a lower middle class neighbourhood. “Much of this development is due to us. We made the state government part with funds,” Asad claims as boys hired by the party beat drums to announce that the big man is around. Asad’s assertions may be right or wrong but the 38-year-old MP contesting the first election post the demise of his father and founder of MIM is locked in a tough battle.

Twenty kilometres away from where Asad is walking, another man is out on a padayatra too. He is Zahed Ali Khan, editor of Urdu daily Siasat who, fed up by the state of affairs, has decided to jump into the electoral fray challenging Owaisi from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat. Accompanied by CPM Rajya Sabha MP, P Madhu and his gang of red activists in the Hakimpet area of Tolichowki, Khan asserts powerfully from a hand mike: “Yahan koi mahfooz nahin, bache bhi nahin. Darusalam ki toli khud kha peekar so rahi hai, aur aap ke baare koi sochta nahin...Yeh goondagardi ka raaj hai.” (Here nobody is safe. The MIM bosses are enjoying themselves not bothered about you. This is a regime of violence).

In an aside Madhu tells TOI: “The evil empire of MIM has to be broken, the empire that is based on zabardasti, on land grabbing, violence and intimidating people. Their game is based on keeping the Muslims poor and dependent on them. And they use might as their right and ask for votes claiming that Islam khatre mein hai”. Madhu has been working in the Old City area for two years and has had numerous clashes with MIM.

Sixty-two-year-old Khan, scion of an aristocratic family whose daily Siasat along with its rival Munsif has had a long duel with the MIM is supported by the Grand Alliance, but a little bird tells us that the TDP cadres have not really been active in campaigning for him. Prajarajyam and the Majlis Bachao Tehreek is also supporting Khan even as the Congress (supporting the MIM) has put up a weak candidate. The BJP is, for the first time, is mulling about fielding a Muslim candidate from the Hyderabad seat that— after delimitation— has 13.31 lakh voters. Of this, 9 lakhs are Muslims and 4 lakhs are Hindus. There are seven assembly segments of which one -Bahadurpura has 92 per cent Muslim voters. The other assembly segments are

Karwan, Ghoshamahal, Charminar, Yakutpura, Chandrayangutta and Malakpet. “In the past, there were not so many Muslim voters in this Lok Sabha constituency that has elected an MIM MP without break since 1984. But delimitation has made it in impregnable Muslim fortress, so much so that the BJP has to field a Muslim from here,” says an analyst.

“We are happy that an intense contest is being fought and this is so for the first time in many years. This is what democracy is all about,” writer Ali Zaheer says. Other analysts point out that although MIM has cadres who have been working at the grassroots level, Siasat and Munsif with its writings have kept a check on them to ensure that things don’t go awry. “In that sense Zahid Ali Khan’s contesting is a logical progression of his work but whether he has the grassroots organisation is the issue,” an old city resident says.

Talking to HNN, Zahid Ali Khan himself says: “I want to restore the glory of Hyderabad, the days of composite culture, of celebrating festivals together. Also I am campaigning for development of the Old City in areas of education and business.”

Asaduddin Owaisi is more candid. “Muslims have very little representation in politics. This is the only Muslim seat in the state, only a real Muslim should be elected from here. We are asking for votes on this ground,” he says.

Clearly then it is a battle for the Muslim mind in the Lok Sabha constituency of Hyderabad.