Maulanas confuse voters with contradictory diktats
Although seminaries do not support meddling in elections, individual maulanas try to influence their flocks for a place in power structure
LUCKNOW:
The divide-and-rule policy of the empire has come back to haunt the Muslims in western UP, which went to polls on April 10. But this time, it’s the friendly neighbourhood Maulana or the ‘Janab’ from Lucknow, who got them divided—maybe unwittingly.
The Muslims — confused by contradictory diktats — failed to vote tactically. So much so that Shahi Imam Bukhari’s statement in favour of the Congress had little effect on the voters, as they already were sharply divided between the SP and the BSP.
It confused the voter further, as his brother, Yahya Bukhari, immediately issued a rejoinder, calling the Congress a “hidden enemy” under whose rule the Muslims had to suffer several riots.
Shia Maulana Kalbe Jawad also declared that voting for the Congress would be to betray Islam. The squabble spread to the cyber world, with Ali Nadeem Rezavi of Aligarh University asking on Facebook: “How much did you get from Modi? Or did Modi promise some post for your uncle?”
Mustafa Kamal Sherwani, head of the department of law at Shia College in Lucknow, blamed the Maulanas for the division of Muslim votes. He said many of his Hindu friends had told him that the BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi should be grateful to the Maulanas for making unwarranted statements.
That the words of the Maulana do have some influence — how- ever fleeting it may be — can be gauged from a Facebook post by Rizwan Husain of Aligarh University: “Nazma and I have just returned after casting our votes … A Shia voter in the Q — an elderly woman in black burqa — whispered to Nazma that she would vote as advised by the ‘Janab’ from Lucknow.”
But additional advocate general of Uttar Pradesh Jafaryab-- Jilani has a different take. He said, “This is not the first time that the Maulanas have issued statements. They have done in every election and there is no harm in guiding the voters.”
Ironically, while renowned Islamic seminaries, such as Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow and Darul Uloom Deoband in Saharanpur, refuse to engage in any political discourse ahead of the elections, some Maulanas and saffron-robed saints keep on endorsing parties.
A fatwa issued by the Deoband-based seminary clearly said in 2008: “India is a democratic country. Hence, it is out of place to look its politics in Islamic perspective and test the parties and political leaders on the principles of the Quran and Hadith.”
But much has changed since the 1990s when both Kanshi Ram, founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party, and Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party snubbed then Shahi Imam Maulana Abdullah Bukhari in public, telling him not to “meddle in politics”.
Thereafter, both enjoyed lovehate relationships with his son, Ahmed Bukhari, who in 2014 decided to issue a fatwa in favour of the Congress.