Nitish Kumar’s Social Engineering and his National Ambition

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/nitish-kumars-social-engineering-and-his-national-ambition

Despite the fact that factors like industrial development, quality infrastructure, law and order and jobs for local youths have now become more important in elections, caste remains a dominating factor in Indian politics. It is said that in Bihar, people don’t cast their vote, rather vote their caste. There is no denying the fact that Nitish victory is attributed to a clever mix of development and caste issues as an election strategy.

Nitish’s silent Social Engineering

Nitish Kumar belongs to the kurmi caste which forms around 3.5 percent, and Yadavs form around 14% of the state's population. Sensing his weak caste base, Nitish took on priority to create a loyal vote bank. He smartly divided and sub-divided OBCs and minorities into most backward and extremely backward categories. Giri, a Brahmin sub-caste, was moved into the OBC list. Bihar has over 25 lakh Giris, mainly in Chhapra, Siwan and Motihari.

The other OBC made an EBC is Rajbanshi, comprising a three lakh population that is concentrated largely in Purnea and areas bordering West Bengal. EBCs are a subgroup of OBCs and gain in the reservation to government jobs, 17 percent in a chunk of 27 per cent. Technically called OBC-II, this group is also entitled to higher scholarships for its students and reservation of seats in panchayats.

The Nitish government secured 50 per cent reservation to women in the Panchayati raj system and recruitment of primary teachers. 35 per cent posts of police constables and sub-inspectors have been reserved for women. Distribution of bicycles by ‘Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojna’ has connected lakhs of schoolgirls from remote areas to schools. In 2015, 59.5% women came out to vote, which was higher than the male turnout of 54.5%. This 4% rise in women's votes was definitely result of Nitish Kumar’s various women-oriented programmes.

 Muslim Vote pattern in Bihar

Muslim- Yadav combination formed the bedrock of 15 years rule of Lalu-Rabri regime. It is argued that Lalu Yadav had favored upper caste Muslims and backward caste Muslims i.e. the pasmanda, remained ignored. Nitish Kumar's strategy included wooing the pasmanda. On 8 October 2005, seven pasmanda political parties issued a clarion call to defeat Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the state assembly elections. Slogans like ‘Vote hamara fatwa tumhara, nahi chalega’ (your dictate on our vote will not work) and ‘jo pasmanda ki baat karega, wahi Bihar pe raaj karega’ (those who concede the demand of Pasmanda will rule Bihar) became the order of the day.

A large chunk of pasmanda vote drifted away from RJD and voted for JDU, despite knowing the fact that the latter was an ally of NDA. Once in power, Nitish elevated Salim Parvez, a pasmanda leader, to the position of Bihar Legislative Council deputy chairman. Later, his cabinet approved the inclusion of a Muslim caste so far among OBCs, Kulhaiya, in the EBC list. The ‘Kulhaiya’ population is concentrated largely in Araria, Purnea, and Kishanganj. Nitish Kumar undoubtedly broke into Lalu might over Muslim votes, by tactfully taking away a major chunk of Pasmanda Muslims from him.

The carefully crafted social engineering of Nitish Kumar was threatened when Narendra Modi was declared to be the Prime ministerial candidate. His decision to part ways with NDA was also in the wake of his assiduously created Muslim votes, which he couldn’t afford to see going back en masse to RJD, eventually allowing Lalu Yadav to resurrect his MY alliance.

Shahabuddin Episode

One fine morning, mafia turned politician and ex-MP Siwan, Md Shahabuddin released on bail, created ripples by calling Nitish Kumar ‘Chief Minister of circumstances’. The chief minister was extremely upset with RJD supremo Lalu Yadav's silence over Shahabuddin repeated attack. The Nitish government took note of it and did play a role in the cancellation of his bail, and Shahabuddin was back to jail again. Before surrender, Shahabuddin slammed Chief Minister saying that his supporters will teach him a lesson. Following his surrender, protest marches were witnessed in many parts of Bihar and in few other states, blaming Nitish Kumar for cancellation of his bail. Anger among youths was recorded on streets and social media. Lalu kept mum with the speculation that this episode might enrage Muslims of Bihar against Nitish, and that he alone would be master of Muslim votes. Will Shahabuddin episode make Nitish lose anything? Iftikhar Ahmad, Delhi-based builder from Siwan says, ‘JDU had been a political ally of BJP for a long time. Muslims of Bihar don’t trust his credentials. His role in Shahabuddin’s case will make him lose Muslim votes. On the other hand, Dr. Mumtaz Naiyer, a senior postdoctoral scientist at Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK, who is actually from Kishanganj has a different view altogether. He says ‘Muslims of Bihar will continue to support Nitish Kumar as long as his welfare schemes and policies are inclusive. Shahabuddin’s impact on Muslim voters is localized. I am from Seemanchal and I don’t see any impact of Shahabuddin on Muslim voters of this region.’

Nitish support of demonetization and his political ambition

Nitish support of demonetization has two-tier significance. The first is connected to Bihar politics. Since Lalu’s party is a substantial power center behind the throne, there is growing clamour from his cronies for a bid to make Tejaswi chief minister. Nitish, with demonetization support, tried to cow down both, Lalu’s cronies and Shahabuddin’s supporters. The message for Lalu was clear. RJD and Congress together have 107 MLAs- 15 short of a majority, while JD(U) and BJP together have 128 MLAs — well over the majority mark. In the specific context of Bihar, both Lalu and Nitish know that it is Nitish who has an option. By the same token, Nitish reminded Shahabuddin’s supporters of the second coming of BJP in power, which Muslims can’t afford to see. The second significance of his support of demonetization has to do with his political ambition. He has reflected on this bold statement that he is a clean politician who is against corruption, and doesn’t endorse ill-gotten cash to be protected.

JD (U)'s plans are to contest UP polls and putting together an alliance of smaller parties. Kumar can project himself as the new face of Kurmis, the second largest backward caste group after Yadavs in UP. Yadavs are with SP but Kurmis have looked at non-SP alternatives like BJP and Congress earlier. A big Kurmi leader, therefore, can be an attractive option. Kumar's strategists reckon that since UP's winners never cross 30% vote share, JD(U) can have a big role if it gets around 9% of votes. We will have to wait and watch how parties’ alliances are going to take place in Uttar Pradesh.

Nitish is trying to build a secular coalition and be its leader – an unannounced prime ministerial challenger to Narendra Modi in 2019. He has coined the phrase ‘Sangh Mukt and Nasha Mukt Bharat’, to realize his prime ministerial ambitions. Kumar is the only prominent Opposition figure running a quasi-campaign for the job of an Opposition prime ministerial candidate.

Nitish Kumar’s prohibition of liquor is one of the very few pan-Indian planks that allow a regional satrap to transcend the boundaries of the state. Women reservation and liquor ban have established him as a much sought-after leader of women cutting across caste and border.  His clarion call to unearth benami property is seen tailored towards his ultimate ambition. Prime Minister Modi has recently announced to make a law against it, but the credit of this advocacy will go to Nitish.

ASIF MOAZZAM JAMAI

Dept. of English

University of Bisha

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Should Muslim politics be revived?

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/should-muslim-politics-be-revived

Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh is in the offing. All parties are eyeing on Muslim votes. Unlike yadavs, scheduled castes, kurmis, paswans and others, Muslims have no leaders or parties to fall back on. To vote for so-called secular parties had been their choice and option. As soon as the election in UP is drawing closer, the so-called sympathizer of Muslims are surfacing with best possible seasonal advises and promises. BSP chief Mayawati exhorted the minority community not to “waste” their votes on the Samajwadi Party (SP) or the Congress if they want to defeat the BJP. Azam Khan says, “Na to Musalman paani ka bulbula hai aur na hi thali ka baingan hai, jise kahin bhi ludhka diya jaye”. (Muslims are neither insignificant nor pushovers).

The Indian constitution was framed to evolve a mechanism to secure liberal, secular and egalitarian objectives based on liberty, equality, and social justice. The separate electorate had gone and Muslims were convinced that there could be no separate Muslim politics in independent India. They even didn’t think of forming a separate political party and continued supporting congress with faith and hope. Badruddin Tayabji and Rahmatullah Sayani were among the founders of the Congress. The third session of congress was held at Madras under the presidentship of Tayabji. In his address, he said, ‘I am utterly at a loss to understand why Musalmans should not work shoulder to shoulder with their fellow-countrymen of other races and creeds for the common benefit of all’. Hamid Ali from Lucknow said, ‘…there is absolutely no need for different platforms for Hindus and Muslims but one common platform where there is ample room for both.’

Ideals of Gandhism, democracy, socialism, and secularism are witnessed to be sinking in our orthodox and tradition-bound social structure and practices backed up by religious and cultural traditions and values. Caste in modern India is still playing a dominant role. Caste is so tacitly and so completely accepted by all, that it is everywhere the unit of social action.

The influence of caste permeates every area and level of political and administrative life of the nation. It begins with the electoral politics. All parties including the so-called secular parties like the CPI and CPM select their candidates for elections with an eye on the Caste composition of the constituencies concerned. Every party tries to select candidates from the numerically dominant caste in the electoral area. There is an electoral maxim in Haryana: Jat ki beti Jat Ko, Jat ki vote Jat ko (a Jat gives his daughter away in marriages to a Jat, so he gives his vote to a Jat).

The argument in favor of casteism is that it is playing a progressive role in modernizing Indian society. The primary function of caste politics has been to transfer authority from the higher to the lower and middle castes. Casteism has become a means of leveling the old order of inequality and uplifting the downtrodden sections of society. It has created in them a sense of self-respect and generated the consciousness that if they unite on caste basis they can challenge the dominance of the higher castes and better their economic lot and social standing.

Muslims in India have their own stories. They have been used in most of the situations as a vote bank by different political parties. Congress ruled India uninterruptedly for 30 years from 1947 to 1977. It eased out Muslims from all important economic sectors through informal or veiled or not so veiled practice of discrimination. Samajwadi party came to power with the promise of 18% reservation for Muslims. Mulayam had also vowed to release all Muslims framed in false terror cases in the country. There are around 64 Mulsim MLAs elected from different parties, but none of them raised a question against hundreds of communal riots that took place in Akhilesh regime. Even a leader of the stature of Azam Khan, couldn’t utter a word against his party, while Supreme Court of India held the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party prima facie guilty of negligence in preventing the violence. It was only peace party, which has 4 MLAs, protested in front of assembly with a large number of its workers over the Muzaffarnagar violence.

Muslims in India are passing through a difficult time. They have hardly shown any capacity to bargain. Their participation is taken for granted. The whole question of their political behavior centers on consideration of safety and security. On the social plane, Muslims have also failed to understand the dynamics of Indian politics. They are exploited emotionally and their leadership has miserably failed to lead the Muslim masses. It may also be pointed out that Muslims themselves have failed to carve out any strategy of political behavior and suffer from acute functionalism. Hence, the bargaining position of Muslims is not adequately projected or noticed by the political elite. As a result, Muslims are gradually sliding down to a situation of not getting any support from the political system. Also, the system is steadily drawing itself away from already suffering Muslim community.

Muslim community was the one that had been politically the most active and effective since world war one. After partition, Muslim leadership decided to abandon the so-called ‘Muslim politics’. It is argued by some social scientists, that Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Hind should have provided a dynamic and far-sighted leadership to the Indian Muslims. Their decision to keep Muslims away from active politics, dissolve their political identity and submerge in the congress was destined to hurt the Muslim interest incalculably.

In this caste based political system in India, each political party is supported primarily by a sizeable section of particular community and caste. RJD’s strength comes from Yadavs in Bihar, Samajwadi’s from Yadavs in UP, BSP’s from scheduled castes and so on. Their caste votes bring them electoral strength and real political power with a capacity to rule and bargain.

Any community deprived of its leader is a pushover. Why shouldn’t Muslims, as a marginalized community and not as a religious minority, have the custodian of their votes? Some argue this will lead to polarization, which is not true. Vote pattern in India is now deeply on caste line and not on religious line. Therefore, Muslims voting in unification for their leader and party will be seen simply a pattern followed by other communities of India.  Muslims figure around 19% in UP. Their vote turns to be deciding factor in who is going to form the government. Each political party comes forward with lollipops for the community right before the election and tries to get whatever it can, and vanishes in the thick air right after the election. Following the own leader and the party headed by own leaders will reduce chances of being blackmailed. Such a party will definitely be part of alliance and governance as well. The mass following will strengthen the leader and place him in a position to bargain, which is a must for the community.