The empowerment of one group leads to the weakening of another. That's one of the basic principles of Indian politics. The passing of Women's Reservation Bill in Rajya Sabha is another such step. Once it crosses all hurdles, the Bill will certainly empower Indian women, in general. But it will also prove to be a death knell for the Muslim politics.
Of 543 Lok Sabha seats, 84 are already reserved for the Scheduled Castes and 47 for Scheduled Tribes. Once 33 per cent of the total seats are reserved for women, the Muslim leaders will be left with very few seats to contest and win. The intelligentsia argues that Muslim women can contest and win from the reserved seats. But the chances of active participation of Muslim women in politics look remote.
India failed to produce a single Muslim women leader at the national level since independence. Of 549 women Lok Sabha members only 18 were Muslims. In six Lok Sabhas (1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, 10th and 12th), there was no Muslim woman MP. Their number never crossed three. In the present Lok Sabha, there are three Muslim woman members. None of them have won election on their own.
Malda MP Mausam Benazir Noor is the niece of former union minister ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury. Kairana MP Tabassum Begum is the widow of powerful Muslim BSP MP Munawar Rana and Sitapur MP Qaiser Jahan is the wife of Sitapur's sitting BSP MLA J.Ansari.
Former Muslim women MPs too had similar profile. This shows that Muslim women need to belong to successful political families to win elections. Since there are very few successful Muslim politicians in India, the chances of Muslims women getting elected even from the reserved seats are very less. Once implemented, the Women's Reservation Bill will uproot the already under-represented Muslim politics from the country. To get a larger picture, let's have a glimpse of Muslim representation in the Lok Sabha.
Of 543 members in the 15th Lok Sabha, only 28 are Muslims. According to 2001 Census, Muslims constitute about 13.8 per cent of the total population. But their representation in the present Lok Sabha is just 5.16 per cent of the total elected members. These numbers have more or less remained the same since independence.
Though every general election saw the rise or political empowerment of a caste or community, but Muslims remained where they were in 1947. Despite changing political situations, favourable circumstances, emergence of new political groups, alignment and re-alignment of pro-Muslim entities, they could never win even 50 Lok Sabha seats in the country.
In 1952 as many as 21 Muslims got elected; there were 24 Muslim MPs in 1957; 23 in 1962; 29 in 1967; 30 in 1971; 34 in 1977; 49 in 1980; 46 in 1984; 33 in 1989; 28 in 1991; 28 in 1996; 29 in 1998; 32 in 1999; 36 in 2004 and out of 543 elected members only 28, or just 5.16 per cent, are Muslims in the 15th Lok Sabha in 2009.
These figures give an impression that Muslims too are getting their share of power in the Indian democracy. However, this impression is partially correct. Simple analysis of election data reveals that Muslim representation was confined to only a few states. Of 35 states and Union Territories, Muslims got elected only from 5 states in all general elections held since 1957. Put together, Muslims were elected from 18 states including two union territories. No Muslim got elected from the remaining 17 states.
There seems to be no place for Muslim politics in Gujarat. Of 26, Muslims were not able to a win a single seat since 1984, much before the rise of Hindutva or hatred wave.
Of 7400-and-odd Lok Sabha constituencies that went to poll since 1957, Muslims were able to win only 449 seats. But the Muslim politics revolved around only 130 seats. Out of 449 seats, Muslims were able to retain just 26 seats for more than five times. While 7 seats have been retained by Muslim candidates five times, six other seats were retained 4 times and 19 seats each were won by Muslim candidates twice and thrice. However, as many as 53 seats had a Muslim MP only once.
Of 449, almost half of them -- 224 -- won the elections on Congress ticket. However, after touching a high of 31 MPs in 1984, their numbers never crossed 12 in the last seven elections. In 1989, 1991 and 1996, they remained static at 12. In 1998 elections, they dipped to 7. In 1999 and 2004, it increased to 10 while in 2009, the number of Muslims elected on Congress ticket rose to 12.
Similarly, no other political party was able to ensure fair representation to the Muslim community. For instance, the Telugu Desam Party gave ticket to only three Muslims in the 25 years of party's existence and only one of them - Lal Jaan Basha -- got elected to Lok Sabha once.
These statistics clear shows that no political party was fair with Muslims. They never allowed a Muslim to grow as a leader at the national level. Denial of tickets to the sitting MPs or abrupt change in constituency was the common strategy adopted by almost all the parties to crush the Muslim leadership.
Under these circumstances where the conventional leadership was suppressed time and again, it is impossible for the Muslim women to contest and win elections even from the reserved seats. The Women's Reservation Bill will only ensure that a few existing Muslim MPs lose the opportunity to represent the community in future Lok Sabhas.
http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/shaikahmedali/2200/61628/why-womens-reservation-bill-is-antimuslim.htmlShaik Ahmed Ali
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