The least that can be said about the suspension of Waris Pathan, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA from Byculla, Mumbai, is that it is most controversial. The fact that all parties, including the Congress and the NCP, unanimously sought his suspension for not chanting Bharat Ma Ki Jai even when asked to do so by fellow MLAs, does not make the suspension any the less controversial.
Admittedly, we have serious differences with the politics and political philosophy of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM. It most brazenly and most viciously fans Muslim extremism. Its politics rests on divisiveness. Being a successor to the Hyderabad Nizam’s Razakar force, Owaisi has his little pockets of influence in and around the Muslim ghettos near the famous Charminar. Only in recent years has he sought to spread his wings outside the Hyderabad region.
In the last Assembly election in Maharashtra, he fielded AIMIM candidates in several Muslim-dominated areas but managed to win in only two. The other seat won by the party was in Aurangabad. In the recent Bihar Assembly election too Owaisi fielded candidates in Muslim-dominated constituencies but failed to cut much ice with the voters.
Probably, the Muslim voter had wised up to the fact that a vote for the AIMIM would only help the BJP-led NDA. In other words, the immediate threat Owaisi poses is not to the BJP but to the so-called secularist parties which had all along counted on the Muslim vote to meet the challenge of the BJP and other parties allied with it.
In the long run, the rise of the AIMIM could well threaten the secular fabric of the Republic. In other words, it is a malignant force in the nation’s politics. Having said that, we have no hesitation in saying that the suspension of the AIMIM legislator on the ground that he would not chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ is highly questionable.
Patriotism cannot be forced the gullet of the unwilling. In fact, those who seek to penalise Pathan for refusing to pay public obeisance to Bharat Mata may well be advancing his brand of divisive politics, helping him become a hero to his partisan constituency which feels alienated from the mainstream. The largest minority community has serious grievances against the ruling elite but its leaders have to rethink their own role insofar as there is a general suspicion about their loyalty to the national flag.
That suspicion might be unfounded, but the fact that it exists in the minds of a vast section of the people is something that the leadership of the minority community must seek to address through demonstrable actions.
Unfortunately, Owaisi and his followers like Pathan have done nothing to allay those misgivings. That is why Owaisi’s dramatic assertion that he would not say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ can only harm his ambition to expand the appeal of the AIMIM outside Hyderabad. His extremist followers will hail his latest drama, but all others would thumb their nose with utter contempt at the denial of respect to Mother India. Being a Muslim-only party, the AIMIM will find it hard to even win the two seats it won last time in Maharashtra.
As to the question why the Congress joined the Sena-BJP in suspending Pathan, we suspect that in view of the on-going elections in the five States, the party did not want to hand over an emotional issue to the BJP. With the nationalist versus anti-nationalist debate still playing out following a series of unfortunate events in the JNU, the shrill spat over the chanting of Bharat Mata Ki Jai can only mean that the Assembly polls would be held in the backdrop of an emotional construct around the Tricolor.
Development and bread-and-butter issues tend to recede into the background when patriotism and Mother India are foregrounded in the public discourse. This is regrettable in a country which still has nearly one-third of its people living below the poverty line. The Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly would have earned kudos had he played the elder statesman and cautioned the vast majority baying for the suspension of Pathan that their demand was without any precedent in the annals of Indian legislative history.
Pathan has become a hero to his partisans while those who suspended him have only gained a pyrrhic victory. This should have been avoided. Ignoring the attention-seeking tantrums of Owaisi and his followers is a better way to ensure that the politics of divisiveness and separatism does not make headway. The Maharashtra Assembly should immediately rescind the suspension of Pathan.
