The erosion of Muslim leadership in India

Zaiuddin Ahmed is woebegone.Born 55 years ago in Kamrup district of Assam he and his family are confronted by imminent statelessness,  stripping of civic rights including voting rights ,or even worse, detention and deportation. What went wrong ? 

His improvident father did not document,in any manner, his birth in Assam. That his uncle , Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, rose to the highest office in the land, Presidentship, didn’t help. Zaiuddin’s misery is typical of a significant number of muslims among the 40 lakh missing from the draft National Register of Citizens in Assam. They were born after the Register was last updated in 1951 and had failed to register the fact of their arrival on earth. Lakhs of families, to all intents and purposes, genuine citizens, now find themselves torn apart. Fathers and children declared citizens, mothers, aliens.

Seeds of doubt and despair have been sown in lives settled. For the few Hindus in the same boat there is hope yet, citizenship by naturalisation under the proposed amendment to Citizenship Act. But the Muslims  stare at the dim prospect of getting permanently uprooted from the land that suckled them for generations,provided succour and livelihood.The lush verdure of the land now seems mottled. Truly harrowing and undeserved ! Should genuine citizens become aliens merely for lack of documentation ? It’s like denying existence of God but acknowledging his avatars on earth.The avatars left their footprints and legends behind, but God, only an unshakeable but subjective reality. 

A huge humanitarian crisis  is looming large. Some way needs to be found to treat such legitimate cases differently. The state also needs to draw up humane responses to people identified as illegal immigrants. The numbers are likely to run in double digit lakhs.

One solution could be to grant illegal  migrants permanent residence-ship without political rights. The Citizenship Act would need to be further amended to implement it. For the undocumented citizens sources of acceptable non-documentary evidence need to be identified. 

However,this is a quagmire our netas need to wade in, not an amateur. Nor is the palpable
lack of empathy for the wretched ones of immediate concern here. What worries me is the lack of ardour , bordering on apathy,  among their coreligionists to evangelise their cause. When Amit Shah waggles his fingers  in triumphalism ‘ we have courage and we are doing it’ (identifying illegal  Bangladeshi immigrants) it’s not a Muslim neta that counters him but Mamta Bannerji,a Hindu    , by stridently highlighting their anguish 

Messrs Shahnawaz Khan, Naqvi and M J Akbar of
the ruling party  have sloughed off their ‘muslim’ skins and become ‘bovinated’, mannequins that look good in showcases of the ruling party but no good as leaders of their 

community. Then there are Azam Khans, Owaisis and Salman Khurshids - self-centred, steeped in provincialism and consumed by their little fiefs. Congress ,once flaunted a galaxy of national Muslim leaders capable of influencing the Muslim psyche,  is now ‘muslim’ bankrupt. No muslim leader of any national stature has emerged in any of the regional parties either.   

At this crucial juncture when it has become fashionable in RW circles to ‘other’minorities and limit its life choices,they are confronted with  a vacuum of enlightened statesmanship from  within .Consequently,the Muslim community, in particular, is forced to underplay its identity to avoid a backlash from tidal waves of aggressive   majoritarianism. The pique, angst and restlessness can only be getting bottled up, an ominous portent for social harmony. 

A responsive community leadership that gives voice to their fears, hopes and aspirations could act as a salutary safety valve letting off of pent up steam. Therefore, to  denigrate minority assertion of its rights and voicing of its felt slights of which there are many,  as divisive is camouflaged majoritarian  bullying that subverts ‘samajik samrasta’.  

And it is here that national parties need to groom minority leaders  who show capabilities of  worming  their way into the hearts of their communities. They,not mono-religious entities, are best suited to ensure minority assertion without social disruption. While championing  a just and fair treatment and nurturing the aspirations of minorities it can also gently nudge it towards richer assimilation within the whole, a warp and weft of a plural social tapestry.

But if  they don't hurry up and get their act going, sectarian elements even more vicious than Owaisis and Azam Khans will move in to fill the vacuum. They will lead the community into dense shrubberies not the happy hunting grounds.