[Assam] The Assam Tribune Editorial

[Ram Sarangapani]

Barua,

I agree. The Assam Tribune is not being consistent. They have been changing
the official names of many organizations and yet not their one.

--Ram


On 9/3/06, Rajen & Ajanta Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>  *>The Assam Tribune
> >Editorial, August 29, 2006
> >Muslims in Asom: estrangement or engagement*
> **
> *>United Liberation Front of Asom*
>
> Hypocritical litikai Assam Tribune is changing the name of Assam to Asom
> for everybody except for own.
> RB
> *
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *
>
>
>
> *The Assam Tribune
> Editorial, August 29, 2006
> Muslims in Asom: estrangement or engagement
> *Abu Nasar Saied Ahmed
> The much-quoted statement of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli
> (1804-1881) There is no gambling like politicsis putatively relevant to
> Indian politics. The recent developments in Muslim politics in Asom tend to
> confirm it in unmistakable terms.
>
> The Muslim politics in Asom took a turn towards particularism soon after
> the historic verdict of the Supreme Court invalidating the controversial
> IM(DT) Act. A new political outfit appeared in the scene ostensibly to
> protect the Muslims from unnecessary harassment that might be meted out to
> them on mere suspicion to be Bangladeshi nationals. This putative fear
> together with an undiplomatic and hard-hitting statement of the Chief
> Minister provided the political rationale behind the formation of the AUDF.
> It did not take time to see the changing contour of the new political
> outfit, which had limitless political ambition to play the role of the
> kingmakerand occupy the driversseat of governance in the State. The
> speculative political equations were based on certain quick and
> business-like assessment of the political scenario in the State. A totally
> shattered and vertically divided regional party, the AGP, despite the tall
> claims made by its president, was too weak to secure absolute majority in
> the Asom Legislative Assembly. Similarly, the BJP despite its graduated
> expansion in its support base was unlikely to strike magic in the election
> performance in a communally harmonious State like Asom. Therefore,
> Badaruddin Ajmal, the president of the AUDF, appears to have calculated that
> his new party would be able to accomplish a political engineering to erode
> the traditional Congress base and reduce its strength substantially. In
> other words, Asom would experience a hung Assembly and in such a situation
> his party would be in the drivers seat in the formation of government. His
> calculation was based on certain hard factual data. Out of 126 Assembly
> constituencies there are 23 constituencies in which the Muslims constitute
> 50 to 90 per cent of the electorate, in 7 constituencies they share 40 to 49
> per cent votes. It means that out of 126 constituencies Muslims play a
> decisive role in 30 constituencies. In a changed situation, he might have
> speculated that his party would be able to capture almost all these 30
> seats. In the process he would be the kingmaker. If things proceeded
> according to his assessment of the political situation, he would be able to
> not only unseat the Congress from power but also settle a score with the
> Chief Minister.
>
> Political calculations are different from commercial ones. As Harold Laski
> once commented that in politics it may so happen that 0+0+0+0=4. That is why
> Ajmals calculations eventually turned out to be miscalculations. It was
> obviously wrong to assume that the Muslims in Asom have an electoral
> collectivism. The long experience of electoral and legislative politics in
> Asom since 1937 abnegates the idea of unity of political action of the
> Muslims. It was a trivialisation or oversimplification of the political
> maturity of the Muslims of Asom to assume that they were morbidly terrified
> at the verdict of the Supreme Court on the IM(DT) Act, and therefore, would
> rally under the umbrella of a newly formed party to find a protective shield
> under it. There has been erroneous construction of a thesis that the Muslims
> of Asom constitute the dependable vote bank of the Congress. Although they
> constitute 30 per cent of the total population of the State and a
> significant force to reckon with in the electoral politics in Asom, more
> than one party shares their votes as they rally behind various political
> parties and have set an example of unseating the Congress from power more
> than once. It is true that in certain constituencies the Muslims vote en
> bloc and en mass which makes the electoral situation visibly different. But
> at the same time, a political party emerging out of a personalised agenda
> cannot really muster sustenance for a long time. More importantly, the
> post-colonial political setting did not testify to the survival of a Muslim
> based communal party. Although the AUDF has been trying its best to disabuse
> its comnmunal face by fielding non-Muslim candidates in the last Assembly
> elections of 2006, it is yet to secure peoples acceptability as a secular
> party. Its credibility as a truly secular and democratic party will heavily
> depend not on words and the manifesto but on its activities and programmes.
>
> The history of Muslim politics in Asom in the post-colonial period does
> not suggest a bright future of a communal-based party. It is true that in
> the early part of the last century, the Muslim League as a communal party
> could enlist the support of a sizeable section of the Muslims. But at the
> same time it is also a fact that many of them joined the national mainstream
> under the banner of the Indian National Congress. Soon after Independence,
> Sir Syed Saadullah, who had been the Premier of Asom for five times, turned
> down the position of the Governor of East Pakistan, decided to stay in this
> country and join the Congress along with his followers. On the floor of the
> Asom Legislative Assembly soon after Independence he made an eloquent speech
> reaffirming his commitment to the Constitution. He said ...Now the Muslims,
> who have been placed either by accident or birth or domicile under the
> Constitution, we are all ready to extend our hand of cooperation and loyal
> services...Since then the Muslim approach to particularism or estrangement
> disappeared and got themselves engaged in the task of nation-building,
> notwithstanding the fact that there were shuttle attempts at reviving
> particularism in some form or other. In February 1975 an organisation called
> the Asom Muslim Parishad was formed at the initiative of Syed Ahmed Ali and
> Omaruddin to struggle for the common interests of the Muslims.It was not a
> political party but a pressure group, which did not last even for a year. In
> a meeting held on March 8, 1977 at Haji Musafirkhana, another organisation
> named the Eastern India Muslim Associationwas formed. It also met with the
> same fate. It is needless to remind the readers about the emergence and the
> end of UMF. In a multicultural society as in Asom, it is extremely difficult
> to keep a communally charged political plank, despite its secular and
> democratic nomenclature, alive and sustained, for particularism, even
> theoretically conceived does not stand on a permanent footing. The political
> expediency in the State does not subscribe to an impression that a Muslim
> communal framework will survive on the floor of the Assembly on any issue
> facing the Muslims.
>
>
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