Prem Singh
The Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP) did not succeed in the Muslim majority constituencies in the
recently held Delhi Assembly elections even though the AAP leadership tried
hard, even monetarily, in this direction to help the candidates. In order to
secure the Muslim votes, the AAP supremo visited the heads of many Islamic organizations/bodies,
and also approached to Maulvi Taukir Raza Khan in Bareli. AAP found Muslim
candidates easily enough, even the BJP is able to seek out Muslim candidates,
but it could not convince the Muslim ‘voters’. This indicates that the
perception of the Muslim community about politics is much different from that
of the mainstream civil society in the country; they do not caste their votes
simplistically – merely because the candidate happens to belong to a particular
or common category. The contenders of the ‘new’ politics, the leaders of AAP,
who want to fly before hatching, might consider Muslims’ perception about politics
to be old fashioned and stagnant as their India Against Corruption (IAC)
comrade Chetan Bhagat has suggested.
In the last 3 decades,
most mainstream political parties of the country have become ‘agents’ of neo-liberalism,
but its direct ‘product’ is AAP. Neo-liberalism and communalism had begun to join
hands in the 80’s, disregarding the Indian Constitution. It became stronger
with the implementation of the new economic policies in 1991 and the demolition
of the Babri Masjid in the last month of 1992 and has been regularly gaining
strength ever since. The hype that the new avatar of this alliance i.e. AAP,
created in Delhi, has been challenged only by the large Muslim population of
Delhi. Therefore, it is a cause of worry for AAP and it has formed a ‘special
task force’ to win the Muslim votes in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Before the Delhi Legislative
Assembly elections, when AAP started a special drive to involve some important
Muslim names the party, as is practiced by the other political parties, it
became clear that the leadership of AAP too considers Muslims to be a vote bank
first and not equal citizens. The making of a ‘special task force’ confirms that
AAP leadership considers Muslims to be a separate vote bank. The people, who
equate the success of AAP with the success of ‘new’ politics, manage to underscore
the fact that this new politics too looks at sections of the population of the
country as categories, by dividing them into religions and castes. It won 9 out
of 12 reserved seats in the Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, but did not
put forward a single Scheduled Caste candidate on any of the other seats. Its
next target is Haryana, where it has already started politics based on caste
equations. To put up a Yadav candidate for chief minister’s post in the Jat
dominated politics of Haryana, first and foremost priority has been given to
the inclusion of Jats. The Jats are falling over each other to fulfill their
political ambitions by doing ‘clean politics’. They hope that a Jat’s name may
be decided upon later, to make victory certain.
Like other political
parties who are said to be secular, AAP while keeping a firm hold on the Hindus,
wants to cast its sway over the Muslims by placing before them the fear of
Narendra Modi. Now it depends upon the Muslim community whether it continues the
same relationship with AAP, the sort that it had with the other secular
parties. As per this relationship, the Muslims vote for the candidate of any
other party that is capable of defeating the BJP. This decision is not wrong in
view of the security necessary for their life and livelihood. Since AAP is a
party run on strategy rather than struggle, its leadership does not declare is
position clearly, position either neo-liberalism or on the question of
communalism. Its only goal is to have electoral success as soon as possible by
being vague and non-committal about these two major issues. In its bid to win votes
from different communities/stratas of society, it speaks in so many voices. In
the coming elections its multi-facedness may even beat the RSS.
From the time of its RSS-backed
anti-corruption movement, AAP has had a large number of neo-liberal and
communal elements. Many BJP/Cong and SP/BSP leaders had joined the party before
the Delhi elections. AAP now has a growing number of opportunistic and
power-hungry elements after its success in the Delhi elections and the formation
of its government. In this scenario, the assurance to the Muslims that it has
many secular faces is questionable. We must keep in mind that a neo-liberal can
never be truly secular. The Muslims should keep in mind that there are a number
of more secular parties other than AAP which do not hesitate to form a
government with the BJP at the centre or in states. AAP too, after getting the
Muslim votes might repeat this practice. A secular leader from AAP, Prashant
Bhushan, has already advocated the formation of a government with the support
of the BJP instead of the Congress in Delhi. Additionally he has also made the
‘grand comment’ calling CPM corrupt, with which an alliance cannot be made.
It is unfortunate that along
with many Marxists, secular intellectuals, political, peoples’ movements and
civil society activists are trying to push Muslims in AAP’s fold. Obviously,
they all perceive the Muslims only as a vote bank and are succeeding too, at
it. Some Muslim clerics and political leaders are apparently impressed by their
campaign. They have started talking in terms of helping AAP’s candidates to
win, considering it to be a part of the truly secular camp. In this period of
grave danger to the constitutional value of secularism, the Muslim leadership/intelligentsia
should take a decision on this contentious issue after giving it a serious
thought. For the Muslims and the other minorities in India, this is a question
not just of debate/discussion but one concerning life and death. The minorities
suffer most by the havoc unleashed by communal politics. Communal forces are so
strong in the present times that there have been communal riots, one after the
other, in Uttar Pradesh under the secular Samajwadi Party government.
Communalism has grown steadily with neo-liberalism.
Fundamentalism is gaining greater footage in every religion rather than tolerance.
Its latest proof is that when there were congratulatory declarations about
political ‘miracles, God’s grace, celebration, hawan and Vande Mataram’ in
Delhi on the occasion of the oath-taking ceremony in Delhi, just 100 km away,
more than 60 people were killed and 60,000 people uprooted from 185 villages during
communal riots in Muzaffarnagar-Shamli districts. Thousands of them are still
not ready to go back to their homes after four months. The SP government has
been rightly denounced for their misdeed of holding and attending the Saifai Mahotsav.
But those who denounced Saifai had no qualms about the celebrations in Delhi.
The New Delhi government’s oath-taking ceremony that could have been managed
within a few thousands at the Lieutenant Governor’s house was accomplished with
a lot of fanfare at the cost of crores in the Ramlila Maidan. The celebration
of the ‘feel good’ factor generated by AAP’s electoral success led to the
celebrations of the New Year with a special zeal by the rich in Delhi and other
metros in the country. Those who claim to check Modi did not even take a peek
at the riot affected areas. Nevertheless, they are grinding their political axe
by organizing membership campaigns in that area.
The Muslims need to
seriously examine the arguments being propagated by secularists in favour AAP.
The argument that Arvind Kejriwal has faded Modi’s glow may be an excuse for
the secularists. This argument may help some Muslims from AAP to reach the
Parliament and the legislative assemblies. But it will not strengthen
secularism. The fading of Modi’s ‘glow’ will not lead to the fading of communal
fascism. The ideologically neutral stance – ‘neither left nor right’ – could
only lead towards strengthening of fundamentalism forces, be it market or
religion. It is to be noted that the corporate world and the media, who have
already pronounced Modi to be the next prime minister, is simultaneously
singing paeans of Kejriwal.
The Muslim voters need to realize
that that Modi is not just a name that they are gearing to challenge. Communal
fascism will not end even if Modi loses the election. The extremist views of
the RSS are personified in some or the other leader, time to time. This time it
is Modi who has risen as its biggest representative. There is a need to look at
this extremist streak. May be on a smaller scale, but the same is visible in
Kejriwal. There is some solid evidence available on that count.
Modi easily won the third
Legislative Assembly elections in Gujarat. Many individuals and organizations
have been trying to find justice for the victims, ever since the time of the state
sponsored massacre in 2002. Kejriwal and his followers, who despite repeated and
loud claims of saving the country, have not spoken a word about it, neither at
the time of incident nor later. We do not find any comments on the anti-constitutional
and anti-civilization deed of the demolition of the Babri Masjid either from
him or his Guru, Anna Hazare. Anna Hazare, whom Kejriwal brought from Ralegaon
Sidhhi to Delhi, dropping his first choice Baba Ramdev, had first praised Modi
from the Jantar Mantar. Modi immediately conveyed his thanks by a letter. At
the same time he cautioned Anna, that his detractors will try to create
differences between them. Some secularists tried to make damage control, but
Kejriwal still didn’t speak up.
An important member of the India Against
Corruption team, Chetan Bhagat, had campaigned for Modi even before the RSS
came out with its decision in his favor, and is still doing so. Lately he has
been trying to ‘educate’ the Muslim youth in favour of ‘modern and progressive’
Modi cautioning them against ‘old fashioned and stagnant’ Muslim community. An
important leader of the anti-corruption movement and Kejriwal’s comrade in
arms, Ramdev’s utterances and literature are not hidden from any one. Ramdev
called Modi to his ashram at Hardwar and declared him to be the leader of
Hindus. Kejriwal did not speak even after that. The Sachar Committee report and
its recommendations came out in 2006. This report has become a central issue in
the India politics. All the political parties advocate the implementation of
the recommendations of the report in one way or the other. Only RSS-BJP has
opposed it. But AAP has still not issued any comment on that report. Therefore,
one may assume that AAP sides with the BJP on this count. The Sachar Committee report
records the pathetic state of Muslims in the country and seeks their
empowerment by suggesting some immediate measures. The Ford Foundation
sponsored AAP’s leadership, including Kejriwal, never speak a word against the
neo-imperialism conducted from the American-Israel axis.
It is
astonishing that the secularists consider Kejriwal to be their card against Modi,
when he has never said a word against Modi. It will be interesting to see what decision
the Muslim public takes with regard to AAP which has pushed back the real
socialist and secularist forces and is continually hobnobbing with the
neoliberal-communal nexus!
Dr. Prem Singh,
a former fellow, IIAS, Shimla, teaches Hindi at Delhi University and is general
secretary of Socialist Party (India).
Comment Prof. Anil Sadgopal
Dear Dr. Prem Singh,
You deserve kudos on your article ‘Will the Muslims become a vote bank for AAP?’ for four special reasons.First, you rightly identified AAP as a direct ‘product’ of neo-liberalism while most of the mainstream political parties have become agents of neo-liberalism, whether out of choice or compulsion. I have been saying this since the birth of AAP (indeed, since the inception of IAC of Anna and Kejriwal) but this is the first time I have seen this in written form, though others, too, must have pointed this out. This is precisely why AAP arrogates itself as a party without either a theory or a vision and projects its ‘Solution-Oriented’ political agenda, just like a corporate consultant giant or Ford Foundation would do. Prof. Prabhat Patnaik has recently dwelt upon this matter of AAP’s political preference to be theory-less and vision-less in his powerful piece appropriately entitled, ‘Rule by Messiahs’ (8th Jan 2014). Second, you have correctly linked neo-liberalism with the rapid rise of communalism in India from 1980s onwards. If you investigate this linkage further, you will find that this linkage has a much deeper philosophical and epistemic basis, not just a strategic one. It will be a fallacy in politics today for a political party to say that it is fighting against communalism but has no problem with neo-liberal assault on India and vice versa. This principle holds true not just for AAP but also for others too.
Third, you have done a great service to the country by underlining that since IAC was “RSS-backed anti-corruption movement, AAP has had a large number of neo-liberal and communal elements.” Although this fact has been widely known but, for reasons best known to the corporate-controlled media, it have never been allowed become a widely acknowledged public knowledge in assessing the socio-political character of AAP. I have myself witnessed in Bhopal how IAC campaign was not only mobilized by RSS but effectively utilized to project its communal ideology. However, the real tragedy was (and is) not that RSS did this to pursue its own agenda but that progressive intellectuals and activists failed to understand (or feigned not to understand) this and joined IAC/AAP for their own questionable purposes.
Fourth, you provided concrete examples of how AAP is playing the same ‘vote bank’ politics by pursuing both communal and casteist agenda as most of the mainstream political parties are inclined to do. AAP’s pursuit of Jat vote bank in Haryana or its silence on Muzaffarnagar communal politics are telling examples of AAP’s forthcoming agenda. The latest episode of AAP’s law minister leading a vigilante group, taking law in its hand, and not only violating the democratic rights and dignity of African women but also making racist remarks should come as no surprise to anyone. All this was done in the name of the ‘local people’ which should be a warning signal about AAP’s ideas of devolution of power to mohalla samitis by misconceiving Gandhi’s transformative vision of Swaraj. All this must not be viewed only as a caution to the muslim intelligentsia and leadership alone but to all concerned sections of society in order to save India from both neo-liberal and communal attack now camouflaged under various garbs – be it the Gujarat Model, anti-corruption ‘drama’, identity politics or ‘Youth Being Better than the Old’ prescription.
In solidarity,
Anil Sadgopal
Comment Dr. Madhu Prasad
Dear prem singhji -
what a relief to read your article, when so many on `our side' seem to have
out-sourced their struggle to AAP.
Neoliberal corporations and the media funded and controlled by them have
played a very significant role in undermining public confidence in india's
democratic institutions - not just political parties and politicians, but even
parliament, electoral politics, and even governance with `due process' and the
judiciary. That has created the space for the creation and support of a
`movement' and its leadership that has no declared perspective or goals but has
provided justification for vigilante methods of political practice. It will
easily fit into the practices of RSS/parivar, MNS, moral policing upstarts, and
other such communal/ fascist elements, although some who should know
better think that there can be a tactical if not strategic opposition
between them which can be used to the advantage of secular forces or
communally targeted communities, castes and social groups like women, gays etc.
If we lookback to the history of latin America this is exactly how powerful
peasants and workers parties and movements were destroyed so the it could
be stripped by multinational corporations of its people's wealth and assets.
The convergence of fascist forces with this agenda is too well recorded to
be ignored.
rgds,
Madhu Prasad
Secretary, AIFRTE
