For Muslims, graveyards become an election issue

 For Muslims, graveyards become an election issue

By Danish Ahmad Khan

Come elections – whether parliamentary of assembly – Muslims in India firm up their girdles and become ready to rake up their pet issues such as Babri Masjid, Gujarat riots, status of Urdu etc. This time even graveyards have become election issue, particularly in a Delhi parliamentary constituency, if not elsewhere. Members of Muslim community are up in arms over the issue of graveyard in Northeast Delhi parliamentary constituency from where Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Haji Dilshad Ali as the party candidate for upcoming general elections. A decrepit Muslim graveyard for the Mustafabad, Kabir Nagar and Babarpur area will be at the top of agenda during electioneering. Locals in the areas complain that there is no boundary wall around the graveyard. Heaps of garbage can be seen strewn and street dogs loitering and sniffing around the graves looking for human remains. Sometimes the problem is such that the dogs in fact succeed in taking out the bones and skulls from the graves and feast on them. The leftovers keep rotting for days thus creating bad odour and polluting the environment. The issue has therefore become quite emotional and sensitive for local Muslims and the BSP candidate is also ready to cash upon this and use it extensively in his campaign. It may be recalled that Haji Dilshad Ali had contested the Delhi assembly elections from Babarpur constituency on BSP ticket last year and succeeded in getting 28,000 votes. During the upcoming parliamentary elections, the BSP has emerged as the only party in Delhi to provide tickets to three Muslim candidates namely Haji Yunus from East Delhi constituency, Haji Dilshad Ali from Northeast Delhi constituency and Mustakeem Ahmed (Billo) from the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency.

If one goes by what Delhi Wakf Board officials say the scarcity of graveyards is indeed a real problem for the Muslim community in India’s capital. Caretaker of Delhi Wakf Board’s mosques and graveyards Mehfooz Mohammad said, “At least 10 more graveyards are required now all over Delhi. Only a handful of them are operational today. Many of the graveyards have also been illegally occupied and litigation is underway to get the land back.” According to the 1970 gazette notification, 488 Muslim graveyards exist in Delhi. However, as of now there are only 25-30 graveyards that are actually operational. The gravity of the problem which Muslim community is facing insofar as graveyards are concerned can be really assessed by the available data. Another problem of the scarcity of graveyards are some members of the Muslim community themselves. According to the Shariah (Islamic law), Muslims are enjoined to make kuchha (temporary) graves in order to facilitate more burials in a particular grave. However, quite on the contrary, some members of the Muslim community openly defy the Shariah and make permanent concrete graves for their deceased kins. They also even go to the extent of erecting tombstones thus making it difficult to bury in layers. This leads to the space shortage in graveyards hence making the problem more severe.

It is not only India’s capital Delhi which is facing the problem of the scarcity of graveyards. Another metropolis Kolkata, the capital of the state of West Bengal, is also facing the same problem. Here the situation is equally grave. According to a report in Indian Express tension erupted in Paharpur under the Garden Reach police station area on 24 March 2009 after caretaker of a Muslim graveyard was found incinerating decomposed bodies to make room for new bodies. The locals, who arrived for the burial of a body around 3 pm, said that they smelt something burning inside the graveyard. Much to their dismay they found that some bones and skulls were found burning lying in a mound of dry grass and leaves. Later over 2,000 locals gathered at the graveyard and tried to beat the caretaker Sheikh Jumman. One of the residents alleged that the graveyard caretaker Sheikh Jumman and his assistant Sheikh Jiauddin resorted to the practice of setting the bodies on fire only to make room for more bodies so that they could earn more money. The residents complained that the graveyard had a severe shortage of space since the ground had been full for the last one year. However, the police arrived on the scene and succeeded in defusing the tension after taking the two accused into police custody.

Elsewhere in the country, even the indigenous Muslims in the northeastern state of Nagaland are also facing problems related to graveyard. Here, however, the problem is of a different kind. According to the indigenous Muslims of Purana Bazar and Naharbari villages of East Dimapur the oldest graveyard is in a pitiable state. The indigenous Muslims of these two villages had acquired the graveyard at Naharbari village in 1857. This oldest graveyard has however now turned into a garbage dump for the area. The complaint being that waste from households are being continuously dumped here thus creating a highly unhygienic environment, facilitating the breeding of mosquitoes and other insects and spreading pollution. The Muslim Committee of Purana Bazar and Naharbari on their initiative conducted a mass social work to dispose off the waste recently. They also urged the residents of the houses surrounding the graveyard not to throw any garbage there since it would hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslim community. They also explained to the residents that the graveyard is the most holy place for the believers.

Abdullakutty’s suspension exposes CPI-M’s anti-development, anti-Muslim attitude

By Danish Ahmad Khan

 

CPI-M’s Muslim MP from Kerala A.P. Abdullakutty would have never dreamt that praising Chief Minister Narendra Modi for bringing astounding industrial development and turning Gujarat into a model state would lead to his suspension from the party. Abdullakutty, a two-time Lok Sabha MP from Cannanore, was suspended from the party on 18 January for one year. Earlier, CPI-M district committee had served a notice asking him to explain why he showered praises on Modi for his efforts to bring development to Gujarat, which was at variance with the party’s view.

 

Kerala CPI-M Muslim MP A.P. Abdullakutty

It may be recalled that Abdullakutty showered praise on Modi while addressing Indian Media Forum in Dubai on 28 December last year. “Today, Gujarat is the most investor-friendly state in the country. That’s the only state where every investor gets a red-carpet welcome, no matter how much he invests. Gujarat is getting investments, and industrialists are fond of Chief Minister Narendra Modi,” Abdullakutty said. When asked about shifting of Nano project from CPI-M ruled West Bengal to BJP-ruled Gujarat, he remarked: “Several chief ministers were ready to welcome Nano project in their state but Tata opted for Gujarat. This was only because Modi gave the best alternative proposal.” Asking to emulate development model of Gujarat, Abdullkutty said that Left should ponder why Ratan Tata shifted his project to Gujarat.

 

 

 

The upright young Muslim MP Abdullakutty now asks after all what wrong did he do that evoked party’s wrath. “I have not made any mistake. I am very sad as the party has not been convinced by my explanation. I talked about Modi in Dubai while replying to a question by an investor who asked why he should invest in a state, which witnessed 82 hartals in last year. The 2002 pogrom in which Muslims were massacred could not take away the fact that Modi had brought investments to Gujarat,” Abdullakutty said, and reiterates that Modi deserves full marks for pursuing his development agenda, but his communal agenda should be vigorously denounced. “In fact, I prefer to recognize both sides of Modi’s personality – one pro-development, and the other communal. My party CPI-M, on the other hand, is not ready to separate Modi from his communal persona, which is really unfair and unethical,” feels Abdullakutty.

 

Abdullakutty’s suspension means that he would not be given party ticket to contest forthcoming parliamentary elections if it is not revoked forthwith. However, for a change he has joined Territorial Army to serve the country better.

 

CPI-M’s anti-Muslim attitude

This is, however, not for the first time that Abdullakutty had to face wrath for “defying” CPI-M’s ideology. Earlier, the CPI-M had censured and demoted Abdullakutty for traveling to Makkah for performing Umrah [mini Hajj] in the first week of June last year. Abdullakutty, who was an area committee member, was demoted to a simple member in the local committee after the district committee took disciplinary action against him on 19 June. The party first “charge-sheeted” him for performing Umrah in Makkah. Later, conscious of the fact that the decision could invite backlash from the Muslim community, the party claimed Kutty was punished for delivering a speech against bandhs and hartals.

 

Abdullakutty, commenting on the party action, had then said: “Disciplinary action was initiated against me after I returned from Makkah. The so-called controversial speech is an old issue anyway. A number of leaders had aired the same view on bandhs and hartals.” He added, “The timing of the party’s disciplinary action against me has made people believe that I have been convicted for performing Umrah. But the party denies that the action was caused by my having undertaken the religious trip.”

 

West Bengal CPI-M leader Subhas Chakraborty praying at a Kali Temple

It may be recalled that even West Bengal transport minister Subhas Chakraborty was photographed offering puja at a Kali temple in Bengal’s Birbhum district. In Kerala, two CPI-M legislators took their oath “in the name of God” in the assembly in May 2006. The party squirmed in embarrassment in both the cases but took no action against these Marxist “believers”, who would have otherwise been suspended or expelled from the party. Abdullakutty had to face disciplinary action of being demoted only after undertaking the Muslim religious ritual of performing Umrah.

 

 

 

In the case of Subhas Cakraborty, the then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu reprimanded him in public. The CPI-M’s Bengal unit also summoned Chakraborty to the party’s state committee meeting and asked him to explain his position after the media widely covered his visit to the temple. Later, CPI-M Bengal state secretary Biman Bose clarified that the transport minister was “neither show-caused nor censured” but was asked to “clear the air” in public. In CPI-M’s Kerala state unit things are no different either. Here, too, the party has never dared to reprimand or punish the “religious-minded” legislators Aisha Potti, the Marxist-ruled state’s first Brahmin woman MLA, and M.M. Monayi, a practising Christian, for taking oath “in the name of God”.

 

On the contrary, Abdullakutty’s demotion for performing religious ritual of Umrah and his suspension for praising Modi for turning Gujarat into a development model clearly smacks of the biasness the CPI-M holds against its Muslim members. The actions of CPI-M against Abdullakutty prove that the party is a thorough hypocrite, anti-development and anti-Muslim. Will the CPI-M stalwarts care to explain why the Left parties backed the National Front government headed by Vishwanath Pratap Singh when the ‘communal’, ‘anti-minority’ Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was part of the same government? Will the CPI-M bigwigs please explain why they allied with the BJP in voting against the Congress Party-led UPA government-backed-Indo-US Nuclear deal? Before voting against the Indo-US Nuclear deal, Left parties were in alliance with the UPA government. After all, what ‘national interests’ did the Left parties serve in allying with the ‘communal’ BJP on these two occasions? I don’t think that any Muslim CPI-M legislator or MP would have even dared to perform ‘Umrah’ or ‘Hajj’ after Abdullakutty’s demotion. Will the CPI-M functionaries or Muslim Marxists please clear their stand on this ‘discriminatory’ issue?     

 

Abdullakutty rightly feels that CPI-M needs to change its attitude, particularly towards its Muslim members. Belief is a personal affair. The Marxist lexicon nowhere indicates that a communist should necessarily be an atheist. Yet the party frowns on believers, particularly Muslims, who want to follow the Left ideology. As per the CPI-M brand of ‘secularism’, backing Muslims on the Amarnath shrine land transfer issue, and staging demonstrations against Israeli brutalities in the Gaza Strip are important things. But when it comes to allowing a party MP from the same community to practice his religious beliefs, the knives are brought out against him.

 

Last but not least, praising Chief Minister Narendra Modi for turning Gujarat into a development model is neither a crime nor this means that his communal brand of politics would also get approval just because the person happens to be the same. CPI-M in West Bengal has already lost Nandigram assembly bypolls at the hands of Trinamool Congress. This should already sound alarm bells for Left parties. In India, today corruption and development have become important agenda to win elections. The days of communal politics are over. Parties across political affiliations need to give a serious thought over this. Or else…. better they be prepared to fade into oblivion!