Politics of Opportunism

Syed Shahabuddin, an intelligent and articulate leader, led the agitation then and is again wasting his time and that of the Muslims and the administration on non issues. He has written to Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram now reminding him of the text of an agreement that the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushwarat reportedly reached with Rao in March, 1984.

According to this,

i) In principle, there shall be freedom of Namaz in all protected mosques everywhere.

(ii) Casual prayer by Muslim tourists or visitors shall be permitted every where during working hours.
(iii) Congregational prayers, whether Id, Friday or daily, shall be permitted if there is local demand and there is no alternative, if the mosque is located in a Muslim area, provided it does not call for any amenities or facilities which will require any structural change which would affect the architectural or historical character of the mosque. Such requests as and when received shall be considered sympathetically.

iv) As far as possible, the Department of Archaeology shall post Muslim attendants to look after the protected mosques.
(v) The Department shall allocate adequate funds from its budget for the maintenance and repair of protected mosques.

How is this going to help the minorities, or for that matter anyone? Surely there are sufficient mosques for Muslims to pray in, and if there are not then more can be constructed. Why should protected monuments, like the mosques in the Safdarjung tomb for instance, be opened to risk and decay. Besides, for the true followers of Islam even the open desert is a mosque.
Obviously this is a political demand, to get publicity and to score points. Fortunately, when it was first raised and pursued even in the 1990's not many Muslims responded. It is strange that in these times when the minorities and the poor of the country are faced with far more serious problems, a non issue is being raised yet again. And by the conglomerate of Muslim organizations, the Mushawarat that should be devoting its limited resources and energies to pursuing matters of education, health, development and security for the minorities rather than getting the government to remove beautiful mosques from ASI protection and open them to regular use. There is mention by the Mushawarat of the role of the Wakf boards, as if these organizations are responsible and responsive. It is no secret that the Wakf boards across the country have become dens of corruption, and perform not even one of the items in the long list of their duties and responsibilities. In fact Wakf land is sold illegally by those in authority to the highest bidders, showing far lower figures than the actual transactions. This has happened in Mumbai and on a large scale in Andhra Pradesh as well with ministers presiding over the scam, part of which did find itself into the local newspapers. The Wakf boards have done absolutely nothing for the Muslim community, let alone protect the properties and the monuments entrusted in their care. In fact, if any of the old mosques still stand today it is because they have been brought by the state under ASI protection and are maintained and looked after to some extent.

t is precisely this kind of politics that was shunned by the Muslim masses and actually decried over the years. Initial efforts to communalise polity by the creation of committees like the Babri Masjid action committee to counter the Hindu right were eventually rejected by the people who made it clear that their priorities were very different from these demands. Most Muslims also realized that the demolition of the Babri mosque and the violence that killed over 2000 Muslims in Gujarat was being opposed and fought by the people of India, and that the fight against rabid cmmunalism could only succeed if it was fought on the platform of secularism.
The Mushwarat's religious demand is thus, worrying as it is an attempt to stoke old fires that the people themselves had tried to extinguish. It pits Muslims against the state, not on an issue of victimization or oppression, but on an issue that tries to derive its legitimacy through imagined religious insult. The mosques that are being referred to are protected monuments, and there is no reason why any rules should be relaxed for Muslims who can as easily offer their prayers from other working mosques as they have been doing, without fuss, for decades now.
The government must not accept this demand. And instead of wasting its time on useless issues, work instead to address the real problems that have lowered the social and economic and even political status of the minorities in India, dramatically. One of these is housing, as brought to the fore by the actor in Mumbai. The police has filed a complaint against him for trying to divide the communities, whereas there should have been a proper enquiry conducted into the behaviour of the housing society that denied him the apartment. It is no secret that Muslims are finding it increasingly difficult to get apartments in Mumbai, as in Ahmedabad,Delhi and a score of other cities, and this correspondent has specific information of several young, cosmopolitan Muslims being denied housing by the societies on some pretext or the other. Obviously no one says that their request is being rejected because they are Muslims, but the property agents inform them of this fact in the beginning. This is violation of a constitutional right, but one does not remember seeing a single protest from the Mushawarat on the problem being faced all over Mumbai and other cities by young working people looking for a place to stay.