List of Muslim parties in India

 National elections barely a month away, leaders of these 10-odd parties - some of which remain largely unknown - point out that the mobilisation of Muslim votes must not be compared with the pre-1947 politics that led to Pakistan. They say they are only articulating the aspirations and also the anger among Muslims over their widely admitted socio-economic backwardness as well as "police high-handedness" after every terror attack.

"Muslims are not satisfied with any mainstream political party," explained Abdul Raheem Qureshi, president of Majlis Tameer-e-Millat, a five-decade-old socio-religious group in Hyderabad.

"All the parties have failed to reflect the community's aspirations in parliament and in state assemblies," Qureshi told IANS, reflecting a widely held view. "But this is not a repeat of history."

He and many others say there is nothing wrong in forming parties to secure the rights and the due share of every community, religious or otherwise. Muslims account for 14 percent of Hindu-dominated India. Their numbers, according to various reports, range from 150 to 177 million.

On paper, all the so-called Muslim parties are secular and don't close their doors to non-Muslims. Most also don't restrict themselves to just espousing the Muslim cause and take up other issues as well. Equally true in a country as varied as India, the majority of Muslims in India still vote for national and regional parties.

Only Jammu and Kashmir state - out of India's 28 states and seven union territories - is a Muslim majority one.

Once the Muslim League died a political death in India following the creation of Pakistan, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) emerged in 1948. Today, it is a mainstream player in Kerala.

The Hyderabad-based Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) was born in 1928 with a view to keeping Hyderabad independent. It was outlawed after India's independence but got revived in 1958.

For decades, these were the only two Muslim parties in India and both had localised influence. The picture is changing - slowly.

In just six years after taking birth in 2005, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) became the main opposition party in Assam, eroding the Muslim base of the Congress and others.

With 34 percent of Muslim population in Assam, AIUDF legislator Sirajuddin Ajmal told IANS with confidence that his party would form the next government in the state.

In West Bengal, the small People's Democratic Conference of India (PDCI) merged with AIUDF last year.

Two other parties - the Welfare Party of India and the Social Democratic Party of India - stunned pundits by winning over 66,000 votes in the Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency last year. President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit then scraped through by only 1,516 votes over his CPI-M rival.

In Tamil Nadu, the IUML has always been a fringe player, aligned mostly with the DMK. A new Muslim party, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK), was formed in 2009 and is now with the ruling AIADMK.

The growing number of Muslim political parties "is a natural consequence of democracy", MMK legislator M.H. Jawahirullah told IANS. He called for coordination of all Muslim groups in India.

With a scattered and largely urbanized 12 percent Muslim population in Maharashtra, the Aurangabad-based Jamaat-e-Islami has not won any seat in the elections it has fought.

The dwindling Muslim representation in parliament and state assemblies in most places worries Muslim leaders nationally.

In Uttar Pradesh, the All India Ulema Council was formed in 2009 but it failed to make any impact beyond Azamgarh district.

The Peace Party, formed later, created a stir in Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2012 elections. It won three seats but was routed in 193 seats.

Activist Naiyar Fatmi said in Patna that while there was no scope for a Muslim party in Bihar, "on the national level there may be". He added that Muslims were frustrated with major political parties.

Added Asghar Nawaz Khan, a leading Muslim leader in Bangalore: "Yes, we are disenchanted by the mainstream parties because we do not matter to them except during elections."

Rashool Abdul of Muttahida Muslim Mahaz, a socio-religious outfit in Karnataka, complained: "We did not get any support from the Congress or JD-S when young Muslims were harassed or arrested on false charges."

This is a recurring theme in state after state, even where no Muslim parties exist.

In Kerala, where Muslims form a quarter of the population, besides the IUML, two other community-based parties exist: Indian National League and People's Democratic Party.

IUML legislator K.N.A. Khader said major issues facing the minority communities in other parts of India were not getting addressed because of "the absence of a political party which works for them".

The IUML is trying to foray into neighbouring Karnataka while the MIM has expanded in other parts of Andhra Pradesh and also in Karnataka and Maharashtra, winning municipal seats here and there.

In Uttar Pradesh, most Muslims now tend to vote for the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, a far cry from the times when they all rooted for the Congress.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the story is more of alienation with the Indian state than any resurgence of Muslim identity.

In some states, however, there is nothing resembling Muslim politics though disaffection within the community exists everywhere. This has also led to the rise of radical Islam in parts of India.

But as community leaders point out, the Indian Muslim is not a monolithic entity. Like the Hindu, he is divided into many groups.

Despite recurring communal riots post-1947, the first major convulsion in the Indian Muslim political psyche followed the razing of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1992 and the 2002 Gujarat violence.

Not every Muslim is for religious identity in politics.

"India is a secular country. Why should there be a separate party based on religion?" asked Abdul Kareem of the Goa Muslim Association.

Abid Rasool Khan, general secretary of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, warned: "If there is polarization of the Muslim community, other communities will also polarize, which will be disastrous."


List of Muslim parties in India

1.  All India Ulema Council (Uttar Pradesh)

2.  Peace Party (Uttar Pradesh)

3.  All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) (Assam)

4.  People's Democratic Conference of India (from West Bengal, has merged with AIUDF)

5.  Welfare Party of India (West Bengal)

6.  Social Democratic Party of India (West Bengal)

7.  Manithaneya Makkal Katchi (MMK) (Tamil Nadu)

8.  Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (Andhra Pradesh)

9.  Indian Union Muslim League (based in Kerala)

10. Indian National League (Kerala)

11. People's Democratic Party (Kerala)

Activist Arvind Kejriwal's advice to students

THE Right to Information activist and winner of Ramon Magsaysay award sits in his spartan office, juggling multiple phone calls, drafting letters and typing out an urgent press release alongside. Surprisingly there’s a rhythm in the mayhem. The former IITian talks to Urmila Rao and explains why he no longer takes up cases of aggrieved college students, the limitations of RTI and much more

Q: From an IRS officer to an activist, why and how did the change happen?
A: When I was in the job, I started doing these things part-time and felt that the value I am bringing here was far better. On the contrary, what I was doing in the Income Tax department could be done by anyone else.

Q: When did the RTI journey begin?A: RTI came much later. Initially I, along with some others started addressing corruption issues, wherein a common man had to pay a bribe to get his work done. The concern was how to create a bribe-free atmosphere. So we started advising customers who came to the Delhi Vidyut Board and Income Tax Department, not to pay bribes in these two departments. We told them that if they have a problem they can come to us and we will get their work done free of cost. So we used to gather grievances of people and collectively present those complaints to the chair of the department and add to public pressure.

Q: Were you an activist during school days as well?
A: I was completely a kitabi keera (book worm). I did not do anything but study.

Q: You have worked for government schools. Why not for colleges?A: It is a different matter to take up the cause of poor people who can’t fight for themselves. They are from under privilaged backgrounds. Working for such students is understandable. However, in case of engineering college students or others, where the middle class goes, I am sure they can fend for themselves. Let people who are suffering from existing malpractices take up the cause. Every person in this country is suffering because of bad governance. A few NGOs will not be able to take up this job. So people who are suffering will have to take up the cudgels.

STUDENT ALERT!  Can you give students step-by-step guide for filing RTI application? RTI is about seeking information from any government department, so you just need to write an application on a piece of paper whatever information that you want from the government. There is a Rs 10 fee, which one needs to deposit in the department. The Dept. is supposed to give information in 30 days. If you don’t get information in that time period, you can file an appeal. There is a penalty clause for officers if they don’t provide information in 30 days. Can students come to you, if they need guidance?We have a helpline number:9718100180. We can help in drafting the letters. We don’t take up any student’s case, we just guide them.

Q: How wise is it for students to compromise on career and get entangled in a time-consuming legal process?A: Right. So, let him find some people who can do something for him. People first of all have to find courage. It is precisely students of this very country, who at the time of Quit India Movement gave up their studies, left colleges and that is why our country got independence. If someone thinks that education, health, infrastructure all are different sectors and issues there ought to be fought independently, then they are mistaken. There is an underlying pattern in the process. And that is bad governance. So unless you tackle governance, unless you tackle corruption you will not be able to solve any of these problems.

Q: So a collective fight is warranted against bad governance from students?
A: Leadership has to come from these students. In Chattisgarh there was huge corruption in the State Civil Services exam. There were some students who took the exams but couldn’t get through. They filed an RTI. Others did not. They thought that if they file RTI applications, in the next attempt they will be victimised. 
It is very natural that if you are appearing for Civil Services examination and if you can make their life miserable they can also do the same to you. But one group of students filed RTI, and got all the answer sheets. The Civil Services Exam turned out to be a huge scam. Some students were given 306 marks out of 300! The students then moved the High Court which cancelled the exam. So someone took up the battle. They did not off-load the battle on someone else.

Q: Despite all the fighting spirit, getting justice is still a complex process, something of a dampener…
A: So who will do it? In our organisation, there is a 23-year-old girl whose throat was slit by the ration shopkeepers. She was fighting battle for the poor people so that there in no corruption in ration system. She was 19 at the time. Post the incident, she had a lot of pressure from her family to withdraw from her work. She said, if I don’t do it, who will? No one will come from America, or Japan. We have to do it.

Q: An inherent drawback of RTI is that the applicant’s identity is open, putting his life at risk.
A: The only way to minimise risk is to adopt strategies. A group of people can file an RTI rather than one person. There could be people from several cities filing the same application, for example, 10 people from Delhi, 10 from Kolkata, from Mumbai and so on.

Q: Do you fear for your life? A: Yes. Every one does. We got threats many times. Attacks from a mafia gang from Uttar Pradesh has taken place several times. Many threats came when we were dealing with the ration issue, which has been the toughest fight.

Q: How long have you been filing RTIs for schools? And what has been  the outcome?
A: We just did it for a year or so. We wanted to understand the whole issue. Outcome was nothing. We just got statistical information; how much budget is coming, how many students are there. Filing RTI will not be able to improve the government education system.

Q: So what’s the alternative?
A: For long, we filed issue-based RTIs. Now we begin to realise that this system cannot function, we need to have a law.  So we now focus on overhauling of the system. We have drafted some laws, which basically say that in urban areas ‘Mohallah Shabha’ and in rural areas ‘Gram Shabhas’ should be constituted. They should have the power to decide how the government fund is spent in that area, what facilities should be there. People should make the decisions. Let the people decide the appointment of a teacher. Government should just implement those decisions. We are calling our campaign ‘Swaraj campaign.’

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