The Gaze within

Prabhat Sharan Mumbai

The plethora of small political parties gradually cobbling together a front, albeit in a tenuous manner, has flummoxed political analysts and old political warhorses alike in Maharashtra. Complicating the electoral conundrum further is the emergence of a Dalit-Muslim OBC (Other Backward Class) combine saturated with pockets having a sizeable density of both estranged communities. The Dalit-Muslim OBC combine is an emerging power even though it is still in an incipient stage. The Congress-NCP and Shiv Sena-BJP alliance always took the Dalits and the Muslim OBC communities for granted. They are now finding a common platform in the fast deteriorating economy.

Mumbai, once touted as the commercial capital, an answer to the common man's dreams, has become a nightmare not just for middle-class job seekers but also for the over-exploited, marginalised communities. Whatever analysts with their own caste-class prejudices or political parties may say with irrefutable logical theories backed with statistics, Dalits in Maharashtra are gradually distancing themselves from their so-called parties. Same is the case with the Muslim OBCs who belong to the lower echelons of the social hierarchy of this minority group. Both are finding empathy in each other and the worsening economy is binding
them closer.

The power of this vote-bank is likely to show only a minimal strength in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. "But, in the state assembly polls, they will certainly become the most powerful lever at the hustings," feels Hasan Kamaal, political analyst and prominent Urdu journalist.

Who will benefit from this? "The BSP. The party might not open its account this time but will rake in seats in the assembly elections," says Rakshit Sonawane, political bureau chief (Mumbai), Indian Express. Issues like the Babri Masjid demolition, non-implementation of Srikrishna Commission Report on the Mumbai pogrom against Muslims-1992-93, or Batla House encounter, according to most social activists, have been put on the back-burner and "will not sway Muslim voters in Mumbai or Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections".

The demographic composition of Muslim identity is not homogeneous. "In fact, it varies from place to place and is extremely amorphous, contrary to the image projected in the media or by parochial Right wing parties for vested interests," avers Urdu litterateur, Ayubi Mahmood.

Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, like India, has so much of diversity, socio-linguistically and culturally. "It would be erroneous to lump people from one community in one crucible of thought forms, like labelling all communists as belonging to CPM," says Vinod Raghavan, activist and journalist, who works in the poverty-ridden Muslim-dominated Cheetah Camp slums in north-east Mumbai.

The Muslims in Cheetah Camp hail from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. "They all belong to southern India and have a mindset totally different from that of a Muslim hailing from, say, UP or Bihar. Ask them about the Batla House encounter, they wouldn't know. They belong to the fold which can be termed as lower castes in their respective states. This makes them impervious to issues like non-implementation of the Srikrishna Commission findings or Waqf Board controversies. They live on a day-to-day basis. That is what they are concerned with. In the north central parliamentary constituency, they will play an important role. But no candidate will be able to break ice with them by talking to them about Malegaon or Babri Masjid," explains Raghavan.