The Curious Case of Asaduddin Owaisi

     Kingshuk Nag once wrote why Owaisi is gaining popularity. He rewinds the Gujarat days: the more the secularists would find fault with Modi the more popular he would become among his core constituency of Gujarati Hindus. The same thing is happening in the case of Owaisi.

Asaduddin Owaisi (Photo Source: AIMIM Website) 

     He was born in Hyderabad on 13 May 1969 and reached to the president of AIMIM. He has been elected as the Member of Parliament for four times representing the Hyderabad constituency in Lok Sabha. He is not the sole politician in his family, but his father and brother are also active politicians. He always catches the central screen of mass media due to his politics primarily centered on Muslim and Dalit.

     AIMIM has been leading in an area where Muslims are in majority that’s why the party has held the Lok Sabha seat for the Hyderabad constituency since 1984. In the 2014 Telangana legislative assembly election, the AIMIM won seven seats and received recognition as a state party. In the same year, the party also won two seats in Maharashtra assembly election and one seat in 2019 assembly election. Owaisi’s party has won five seats in 2020 Bihar assembly election, and so called liberal circle starts murmuring over his participation in the WB assembly election regarding that he and his party are benefitting to BJP and Sangh Pariwar.

     On this question, many in the liberal circle are disquiet on Owaisi’s rise in national politics and how he is cutting the Congress-Mahagathabandhan vote share and directly benefitting the Sangh Parivar. But, it is not true as per the BBC article that embarks the reason behind Owaisi’s party victory in the Seemanchal area of Bihar.

     Seemanchal area includes 24 seats and more than half seats have Muslim majority of votes. BBC Hindi in his report portrayed that Muslim voters desire his own identity. They do not want to be seen as vote bank defeating BJP. Bridges have broken here. Candidates who have been winning in the name of secularism do not have interests in developmental works. The AIMIM did not split the votes. The party contested here only 20 seats where more than half seats have Muslim majority of votes but won only five seats despite that the party did not have many votes on other seats.

     Javeed Alam declares in his book ‘who wants democracy’ Muslims as a joker in the democratic pack. A joker owes importance, interest for everyone, but only some people care about their needs. He alleges that parties like Congress and others used only the utility of their vote bank without giving the strata of development. That’s why Owaisi’s party AIMIM enters election battleground where Muslims in the majority.

     His political ideology extracts his personality as when the Left denied support to UPA during 2008 US-India nuclear deal, Owaisi supported to prevent the opposition right-wing BJP.

     It was a clue and the latest trend indicates that the AIMIM and Owaisi like the politics of religion, identity, and in many commentators’ opinion polarization as BJP do. That’s why where Owaisi’s party takes part in the election, BJP and AIMIM automatically gain advantages in respect to other parties because the developmental issues are not so driving factor to change the voting behaviour of the masses.

     Commentators compare Owaisi to Jinnah, but he has been opposing Jinnah’s two-nation theory every time. He sticks to his agendas that Muslims must develop their political force similar to OBCs, Dalits and Yadavs. He supports reservation for backwards Muslims and maintains a clear stand that he is against Hindutva ideology but not against Hindus.

    More appreciating he argues for the abolition of the Haj subsidy and criticizes ISIS as a problem among Muslims and called them dogs of hell. There are so many that show him dissimilar to his contemporary Muslim leaders. That’s why he has been rewarded as Sansad Ratna Award for asking 1080 questions in the parliament compared to the national average of 292 in 2014.

    In public life, there are a few leaders who have fewer controversies, but Owaisi is not a member of this club. He and controversies have been going hand-in-hand. Multiple cases have been registered due to hate speech. Owaisi was booked for charges related to manhandling the Medak district collector in 2005. In 2009, a case was registered against Owaisi for chasing and beating up a polling agent in the Moghalpura area. He denied saying the slogan Bharat Mata Ki Jai that gained more controversy in 2016.

    In Nizam Pasha’s Opinion: the sad reality of this country is that despite being a London-educated barrister and experienced politician having the right politics and speaking the language only of nationalism and inclusion, Owaisi can never come to represent Indians at large. That’s all.