The Indian Muslim community has been fighting with its back to the wall for survival since 1992 with repeated onslaughts by the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, and their political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The hardcore Islamophobes of the BJP—Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and Adityanath—are leaving no stone unturned to obliterate the existence of Muslims in our country.
The razing of the Babri Masjid, the snatching of Babri Masjid land, destruction of the Muslim businesses and properties, usurpation of Waqf properties, Gujarat Muslim Genocide, riots, lynchings, delimitation of the Muslim majority Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly constituencies particularly in Gujarat, Assam, Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, and other places for political exclusion and deprivation of Muslims, getting former Members of Parliament killed in encounters or through criminals, bulldozing of Muslims’ properties on the false allegations of stone-throwing, attempts to impose Uniform Civil Code (UCC), Hijab ban, moving towards Halal ban have not opened the eyes of the 200 Million Muslims in India! Telangana is a glaring example of the deep political division of Muslims in slumber if one goes by different Muslim organizations’ fragmented appeals in favor of different political parties. The vested interests and political slavery of these so-called Muslim organizations are pushing the Muslim community to its possible doom!
The BJP, true to its anti-Muslim stance, has not given a ticket to any Muslim. The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), in tacit alliance with the BJP, has followed Narendra Modi’s silent instructions to give just a token representation. The only sitting BRS Muslim MLA from Bodhan, Amer Shakil, is fielded along with three other dummy Muslim candidates in the old city of Hyderabad. Amer Shakil is on a sticky wicket. Congress candidate Sudarshan Reddy is likely to pip Shakil for the post. So, there will be zero Muslim representation among legislators from the BRS. Congress is not washed with milk either. It has given less than 5% tickets to Muslims, and two of its so-called Muslim candidates are temple hoppers, who break coconuts there. Reddys and some others have cornered Muslims’ tickets in Congress. After coming back to power in Karnataka, Congress seems to be in a resurgent mode. Congress would not have lost power at the Center in 2014 but for its anti-Muslim laws in the name of fighting terrorism with the likes of Islamophobes Digvijay Singh and P Chidambaram in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet. Muslims distanced themselves from the Congress and shifted political loyalties to regional parties like the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Janata Dal (Secular), and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), now known as BRS. But Muslims were used as vote banks. All these regional parties duped Muslims and danced to the communal tunes of their parent party, the BJP, led by the propagandist pied piper Narendra Modi.
In the Telangana Legislative Assembly elections, the United Muslim Forum (UMF), a mix of diverse and divergent Muslim sects dominated by political Ulema and Mutawallis of Dargahs, has appealed to the Muslims to vote for the BRS. Some of the Mutawallis are accused of selling away Waqf lands. The Jamaat-e-Islami has adopted a fragmented musical chair approach and pledged support to the BRS, Congress, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Earlier, the Jamaat used to dine with the MUF. The Jamiat Ulema-Hind, led by two warring political jokers, Arshad Madani and Mahmood Madani, stands perfectly divided, with one faction supporting the BRS and another sailing with the Congress.
The political opportunist Mullas of the MUF, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind factions have, by this support for the BRS, demonstrated that they are on the same page with the BRS on the issue of Waqf lands, whose chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) as Chief Minister not only took away Waqf properties worth thousands of crores of rupees (esp. Dargah Hadhrat Hussain Shah Wali Waqf land) but also allegedly got handcuffed Muslim prisoners killed in Alair in a false encounter with the police. The KCR destroyed eight mosques in Telangana. He did not give Muslims even a Rs 1 lakh loan in the last 4 years of his second tenure. He did not start and complete the Islamic Cultural Center. He gave away huge funds to Dalits and shepherds while taking away even the meager budgetary allotment to Muslims. Officials were instructed to spend no more than 50 percent of the budget allotted to the Minority Welfare Department. KCR supported the Narendra Modi government in passing all the anti-Muslim bills in Parliament. The blind Mullas are all comfortable and complicit in KCR’s crimes against the Muslim community. They are dividing the Muslim community for their own selfish interests.
The blind and heartless Mullas have sold their souls to different political entities, leaving the common Muslim voter confused. Many people and prominent political pundits believe that Congress is a lesser evil compared to the BRS. The Congress is on an undeniable surge after its victory in Karnataka. It will take a mighty effort for Congress to encash the anti-incumbency against the tainted and allegedly corrupt BRS government. The unemployed youth are angry with KCR for paper leaks, whose liquor-scam-tainted daughter, K. Kavitha has also put him in a spot of bother. Amit Shah’s threats to take away the 4 percent reservations given to socially and economically backward Muslims will boomerang on the BJP’s vitriolic hate campaign with bulldozers. Fielding the lowly extremist Raja Singh, who abused the Holy Prophet (PBUH), has exposed the BJP in the eyes of the international community and particularly the wise people of Telangana State. The hardcore communal crooks of the BJP—Adityanath and Hemanta Biswa Sarma—are daydreaming that Hyderabad will be renamed Bhagyanagar.
The Muslims of Telangana should not follow the blind Mullas but keep the interests of the community at heart for their political survival in the years to come. It is time to send KCR back to his much-loved farmhouse. A Congress government or a Congress-headed coalition would be in the best interests of all communities, particularly Muslims. It is high time to exorcise the communal demons casting an evil eye on Telangana. Hopefully, the inciting Bhasmasuras will meet their fate in 2024.