The AMU connection to Bihar polls
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It is alleged when there’s an election in Bihar, it causes ripples at Aligarh Muslim University. Despite COVID-19, this October, the influence has been palpable as former AMU Students’ Union president Maskoor Ahmad Usmani is within the fray from Jale Assembly seat in Darbhanga district on a Congress ticket.
The spotlight of Mr. Usmani’s tenure in AMU was when he took on the BJP and a bit of the media when the Jinnah portrait controversy erupted in May 2018 and it’s arduous to consider that the Congress wouldn’t have measured the results earlier than giving him the inexperienced sign.
Jinnah’s portrait concern
The right-wing teams led by BJP MP Satish Gautam needed AMUSU to take away the portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah from the Union Hall. Mr. Usmani argued that Jinnah was a founder-member of the college and was conferred life membership in 1938 and the presence of his portrait within the Union Hall solely indicated preserving the historic legacy of the college.
But the djinn of Jinnah refused to disappear. As quickly as Mr. Usmani bought the ticket, Mr. Gautam mentioned giving the ticket mirrored the mindset of the Congress. “Hindus know what to do with the well-wisher of Jinnah in the election,” he instructed reporters.
While acknowledging that AMUSU’s presidentship bought Mr. Usmani the ticket to electoral politics because the put up carries a price throughout the nation, Mohammad Mohibul Haque, professor of Political Science in AMU, mentioned folks know the truth of the Jinnah episode. “The current dispensation is facing the anger of migrant labour. To divert attention, Mr. Usmani is being made a scapegoat to target Congress.”
Prof. Haque, whose ancestors hail from Bihar, mentioned, “Jinnah matters only for the spokespersons of the BJP and the party’s spokespersons in the media houses.”
Coming from an expert course like Bachelor of Dental Studies, Mr. Usmani belied the picture of the standard pupil politician who stayed on within the campus to fulfil his political aspirations.
Ansab Aamir, a pupil of engineering who watched the 2017 elections intently, mentioned Mr. Usmani was broadly accepted.
Irrespective of his desperation to discover a political area of interest, his method is being appreciated. “For the last few months, Mr. Usmani has been running an intense library movement in rural Darbhanga and Madhubani wherein he proposes to establish libraries in villages as centres of educational, cultural, and sports activities,” mentioned Mohammad Sajjad, professor of History at AMU.
“It is a good sign that he is making education central to his politics. He was beaten up by the police and suffered a fracture during the Jinnah controversy but he didn’t compromise. He rather confronted the national media. He is seen as a credible voice,” mentioned Prof. Sajjad.
‘Not an easy fight’
Prof. Haque maintained it might not be a straightforward battle for Mr. Usmani however as caste stays a major think about Bihar politics, Muslim candidates have a bonus.
“As the Hindu vote gets divided, the party’s support base plus Muslim vote become an important factor in constituencies where there is a significant Muslim presence. The caste factor exists among Muslims as well but the internal stratification only manifests when the saffron threat is not there. In the assertion of New Hindutva, the internal stratification of the Muslims stands diluted,” mentioned Prof. Haque.
Hailing from Muzaffarpur, Prof. Sajjad has written extensively on the politics of Bihar. “From Syed Mahmud, a Minister in Nehru’s Cabinet, to Abdul Ghafoor, who was Bihar’s Chief Minister from 1973 to 1975, AMU has been intermittently providing leaders to Bihar politics.”
In latest years, mentioned Prof. Haque, Ali Ashraf Fatmi, the four-time Rashtriya Janata Dal MP from Darbhanga, has been carrying ahead the legacy. Mr. Fatmi shifted to the JD(U) final 12 months.
“You will find Aligs (as AMU alumni are called) in all political parties,” mentioned Prof. Haque citing Mohammed Ali Kaiser, who’s within the Lok Janshakti Party. He mentioned, it’s a “good sign” that the “public-funded university like AMU” continues to present the “secular Muslim leadership” and that it’s “not coming from Deoband and Nadwa”.
Analysing the affect of AMU alumni again residence, Prof. Sajjad mentioned in contrast to many different universities that had been “catering largely to the elite”, AMU had been offering “upward mobility” to “a large number of deprived sections”. “AMU provides them the tools to express themselves and they use their voice back home. And they carry the connection with the alma mater because they feel they would not have been able to cross socio-economic barriers without the time spent at the institution at an affordable cost.”
That’s why, added Prof. Haque, college students go to marketing campaign for the Aligs. “It is beyond religion or party affiliations. I remember the special attention former Delhi CM Sahib Singh Verma, an AMU alumnus, used to give us whenever we visited the Capital.”
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