From: The Times Of India - Hyderabad
Date: Jan 13, 2013, Section: Times City: Page: 5
GUEST COLUMN
At Sniff of Polls Netas Fan Communal Flames
Mazher Hussain
Recurrence of communal riots in Hyderabad has become part of elections with conflicts engineered during the year preceding elections to polarize communities and reap votes. Most conflicts occur in areas with ahistory of communal discord but facilitate communal polarization in other places in the vicinity.
Most of these conflicts happen in the Telangana region, a few in Rayalaseema and negligible in coastal Andhra. Linguistic, cultural and social differences between Hindus and Muslims of Telangana seem to be the prime reason for more communal conflicts in the region.
Communal conflicts in Telangana started from 2010 and not a year before the 2014 elections as would be expected. Further, violence is also taking place in cities and towns without any history of communal tensions. The design appears clear: a long term plan to polarize Hindus and Muslims in as extended an area of Telangana as possible.
Similar situations were witnessed from late 1960s in Hyderabad where communal conflicts had become regular phenomena. The allegations are that Majlis Intehadul Muslimeen (MIM) was responsible for most of these conflicts and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its earlier avatar, Jana Sangh, accounting for the rest. MIM certainly made electoral gains from this period with no representation till early 1960s to 45 Corporators, their Mayor, seven representatives in the State Assembly and one Member of Parliament at present. Similarly, BJP also gained the MP seat from Secunderabad thrice and won some MLA and corporator seats in the city.
Now BJP along with a plethora of Hindutva outfits seems to be embarking on the strategy of communal polarization covering Telangana while MIM has restricted itself to old Hyderabad. Hence riots are happening even in cities and towns without history of communal conflicts. A variety of instigations like targeted attacks on youth of a particular community leading to one death; throwing animal flesh in both mandirs and sasjids etc to instigate riots, The latest and the most dangerous is the controversy over the Bhagyalaxmi temple that abuts the Charminar. According to police investigations, members of Hindutva outfits were found to be responsible for most of these instigations.
BJP was always a bit player in Andhra Pradesh and has only three MLAs in the Assembly. But by providing unequivocal support for a separate Telangana and instigation of communal conflicts in as many places as possible, Hindutva forces are attempting to achieve electoral gains in the region on the basis of support from votaries of a separate Telangana along with polarization of Hindus and Muslims. In these circumstances more riots may be expected.
Though Majlis gained from polarization of Muslim votes, it could not go beyond winning 4 to 5 Assembly seats and started actively reaching out to Dalits and Lambadas (a tribal community) by making a Dalit the Mayor of Hyderabad in mid-80s and by giving tickets to Dalits and tribals to contest corporation elections. This gave Majlis 2 to 3 additional seats in the State Assembly and 4 corporators.Most of the Hindu – Muslim riots are riots between Muslims and Dlits or backward lasses. With the increased dependence of Majlis on the Dalit and tribal votes to improve its tally, any riot now becomes counterproductive for Majlis. Hence Majlis has been showing restraint even under provocation during last three years. However,with such continued provocations if Majlis continues to keep silent, it could earn the wrath of the Muslim community and lose its vote. In this situation two different approaches seem to be available to Majlis.
The first one is of taking on the Hindutva forces. The provocative speech by Akbaruddin Owaisi is a manifestation of this confrontationist trend that could lead to tensions and further the interest of the BJP. The other is the prevailing approach of ignoring the provocations for greater electoral gains. But provocations from the Hindutva forces could eventually force Majlis to give up on prospects of increased electoral gains and act to retain its core Muslim vote.
Given the uncertain political scenario, the state government lacks the required will to effectively check trouble mongers. In such a situation, it appears that people will have to come forward to prevent violence or face consequences.
Even though political interests instigate conflicts, riots cannot continue till common people get carried away and engage in targeted violence. Hyderabad also suffered for years from bouts of such mass hysteria but after so many riots, members of the public from both communities in Hyderabad have begun to understand the role of political parties and are no longer becoming easy prey. Consequently communal riots in Hyderabad have come down substantially.
How frequent will the conflicts be in Telangana region and for how many years will depend on how soon the people of the region realize that they are being used as cannon fodder. It took the people of Hyderabad over 30 years to gain this realization.
(The writer is an Executive Director of COVA)
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