According to Census 2011, Muslims formed 6.57 per cent of Madhya Pradesh’s population. This means that the 230-strong Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha should have at least 15 Muslim members. However, current Vidhan Sabha has just one. Representation to minorities in elective institutions is, to some extent, a universal problem. The situation in European countries and the USA is somewhat better in this respect.
A number of people from Asian and African countries contest for the House of Commons in Britain and get elected. A Muslim is the Mayor of London, which is a highly powerful office. Years ago, when the British were ruling India, Dadabhai Naoroji was elected to the House of Commons. Similarly several people of Asian and African origin are senators and even Governors in USA. American Presidents often includes non-Americans in their White House team.
In India, several Muslim leaders participated in the freedom struggle. Prominent among them were Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad and Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, who was popularly known as Frontier Gandhi. Maulana Azad occupied the post of Congress President too. After Independence, the minorities were given due importance in various walks of life. Muslim happen to be the largest minority of our country.
Three Muslims had the distinction of becoming President. They were Dr. Zakir Hussain, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Muslims continued to occupy various important positions including Governors of the states till the third decade after independence. In Madhya Pradesh, Muslims occupied several public offices. Many names can be mentioned in this context, including Gulsher Ahmed, who held the position of Speaker of Vidhan Sabha and Minister. He was also the Governor of Himachal Pradesh.
The other prominent name is Aziz Qureshi of Bhopal who served as Minister and was also appointed as Governor of Uttarakhand. In subsequent Vidhan Sabhas we had more than dozen Muslim members. There were many Muslims who were elected to the Lok Sabha. They included Maimuna Sultan, Ghufran-e-Azam and Aslam Sher Khan. Both Ghufran and Aslam were also well-known Hockey players. Aslam Sher Khan was a part of Indian team which won Gold medal in Hockey World Cup.
Slowly Muslim representation started declining. During Digvijaya Singh’s first term he inducted Ibrahim Quershi as Minister though he was not an MLA. As he could not get elected to the Vidhan Sabha within the six month period he had to resign from the ministry. During Singh’s second term Arif Aqueel was the lone Muslim in his ministry. Now things have reached to such a pass that for the last 15 years, only a single Muslim – Arif Aqueel – is getting elected to the Vidhan Sabha for the past 15 years. Aqueel was first elected as an Independent. Later, he joined Congress and was elected to the Vidhan Sabha again.
Bhopal has the distinction of electing Shakir Ali Khan to the Assembly from 1957 till 1972. The Muslim representation is likely to remain low unless concrete efforts are not made to increase the same. Nobody can expect the Bharatiya Janata Party to help Muslims get what they are entitled to. Some BJP leaders have publicly stated that they do not want votes of Muslims. In pursuance of this policy, they did not give a single ticket to a single Muslim in Uttar Pradesh despite the fact that Uttar Pradesh has a large Muslim population.
But one does expect Congress to take care of Muslims. When the issue of Partition was being discussed in the country Jinnah asked Congress to treat Muslim League as the sole representative of Muslims. But Congress declined to accept this demand, though it had to pay a heavy price for this. Now, the time has come when the country and Madhya Pradesh particularly will have to devise a policy to facilitate Muslim representation.
In the USA there is a popular slogan “No taxation without representation” Thus representation has to be given to those who pay taxes. Muslims also give taxes therefore they should be given representation in proportion of their population.
If we can’t ensure Muslim representation in proportion to their population through elections we must think in the term of nominations. Even the countries like Pakistan provide for reservation for minorities in their elected bodies. At present we do not have such a provision.
We must try to bring them in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabhas by elections. For this, political parties must encourage Muslims and other minorities to participate in political activities. But unfortunately this is not being done. Let us have a look at the office-bearers of Congress in MP. Not a single Muslim has been given important position in the organisation headed by Kamal Nath. If prompt action is not taken in this respect it will result in frustration in the rank and file of Muslim political workers.
LS Herdenia is senior journalist
The views and facts expressed in this article are that of the writer and sources known to him
