Indian Muslims Efforts To Unite On Secularism

India, which has many religions & sects, there are 25 crores Muslims in it. Although the division of India in 1947 was completely based on religion & after the division, Pakistan came into existence as a Muslim country yet it is also true that a big class of the Muslims was quite against this religion based bloody division of India. As an Indian national citizen, they were happy & satisfied & kept themselves away from the process of division. They remained where they were. Consequently, even today Indian Muslims are living in India as the second biggest population in the country.

After the division of India in 1947, mostly the Indian Muslims linked themselves with the Congress party. As this Congress party travelled its entire 62 years political journey from 1885, the year of its foundation, to 1947 & fought the decisive war of independence along with the people of all religions & sects. So Congress party was successful to make its recognition as a political organisation & as a party that was a party of all religions & sects. So even after the division of India, the Indian Muslims remained a part of the Congress party. But since 1947 up to now, the Indian Muslims saw many ups & downs. Many political parties allured, attracted & tempted them to the extent that the Muslim society divided itself into many different political organisations. The Muslim society that felt itself once secure in only Congress party, can be now seen less in Congress & more active in the regional political parties. Obviously the division of the Muslim votes in different political parties divided the powers of the Muslims in many different parts. As a result of it, the power of 25 crores Muslims weakened & the biggest minority class became a mere vote bank.

Although, since 1947, there had been many communal riots in India & the extremist communal powers many a time tried to harm & show down the Indian Muslims. But the communal riots of 2002 in Gujarat state in India moved the Indian Muslims as well as to the people who had secular thoughts. The sorrowful aspect of these riots was not this that there was a planned massacre of thousands of the Muslims but the main concerning subject was that the Narendra Modi government of Gujarat, instead of protecting the Indian Muslims from the extremist powers from being massacred, itself helped the communal riots. Even today the communal government in Gujarat can be seen poisoning against the Muslims & creating an atmosphere of unsafety.

Because of the above sorrowful circumstances, once again the Indian Muslims are trying to organise themselves politically. But this time their unity & unity in 1947 differs. Undoubtedly, before 1947, a faction of the Indian Muslims united, just to establish the Muslim country. That faction succeeded in dividing India & setting up a new Muslim nation, Pakistan. But the present effort of being united is completely based on nationality & secularism in India. This time the aim of being united is to protect their honour, along with the majority & secular people of mainstream of the country to fight for their rights. This political organisation has been named as United Democratic Front (UDF).

The chief of the UDF is Maulana Ahmed Bukhari the main priest of Shahi Jama Masjid in Delhi, who is known as the party supremo. But the former home minister of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Singh Saini has been appointed its vice president & Rajeev Aggarwal (Both are non Muslims) is handling the powers of its General Secretary. In last days, the writer of this column had a long interview with Mehbood Ahmed, president of the UDF parliamentary Committee in the capital, Delhi. He got some information about UDF & came to know about the basic principles of this organisation that showed that its base was mainly secularity as it is in Indian setup. According to Mehboob Ahmed, the president of the parliament group of the UDF, there are 14 MLA's of it in Assam state in India. In the biggest state of India, Uttar Pradesh, UDF got a big success in city corporation & city council elections in last days. In spite of being a new political party UDF made 33 candidates for city council & city corporation elections & 19 of them were successful. Interesting, among these 19 winners there is a majority of candidates who belong to the Hindu community. Similarly UDF has shown its notable presence in political circle by making 315 municipal counsellors victorious in all over UP.

According to Mehmood Ahmed UDF wants to fight for the welfare of the Muslims & for the cause of keeping them ignored but it is desirous of doing it with the co-operation of the Hindus that have secular thoughts. The aim of the UDF is neither get rule for the Muslims nor to make the power as a source of income. UDF is in favour of justice for all the religions & sects. UDF claims that the organisation can win 250 seats in Parliament elections & have power to influence 350 seats. UDF is preparing for coming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. To what extent this newly organised political party is favoured by the Indian Muslims, can't be said but because of its secular principles, many non-Muslim persons are joining it. UDF is strongly against the criminals in politics & its talks of not making its candidates with criminal background. To make India a strong nation & to uproot the corruption, this organisation is in favour of giving 25% party tickets to the youth.

UDF has basic differences with Jamaat-E-Islami, an extremist organisation & others that have extremist thoughts. It is a condition for the persons that join UDF & gives a call for the persons joining it to think above the limited thinking of the class & along with the Muslims, work for the welfare of all Indians & the humanity. This organisation that is against the policy of colonization of the western countries is although against the conspiracy of America that has made Saddam Hussain near the gallows yet puts more blames on Saddam for the bad conditions of Iraq than putting blames of America. The time will tell how far this secular organisation succeeds in establishing itself in political set up. But the coming of this new organisation has upset the political circles in India.

(About the Author) - Writer Tanveer Jafri is a columnist in India related with hundreds of most popular daily news papers/portals in india and abroad.Almost, he writes in the field of communal harmony, world peace, anti communalism, anti terrorism, national integration, national & international politics etc.He is a devoted social activist for world peace, unity, integrity & brotherhood. He is also a member of Haryana Sahitya Academy & Haryana Urdu Academy (state govt. bodies in India). Thousands articles of the author have been published in different newspapers, websites & newsportals throughout the world. He is also a receipent of so many awards in the field of Communal Harmony & other social activities. EMAIL-tanveerjafriamb @ gmail.com

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