All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) supremo Asaduddin Owaisi after taking oath as the Member of the Parliament on Tuesday raised the slogan, “Jai Palestine”, which has rightly provoked widespread anger and outrage. This is a clear expression of religious loyalty overriding national loyalty. Owaisi did not say “Jai Hind”.
Owaisi wrapped up his oath saying, “Jai Bhim, Jai Meem, Jai Palestine, Jai Telangana and Allahu Akbar”. He did not say “Jai Hind”, which he could have easily added along with other slogans. Why he avoided saying “Jai Hind” can be anybody’s guess.
Owaisi has been elected to the Lok Sabha for the fifth consecutive term from the Muslim dominated Hyderabad parliamentary constituency in Telangana state.
Legally or constitutionally there is nothing wrong in saying “Jai Palestine”, particularly when Palestine is not considered to be an “enemy state” by India.
In fact India has always maintained a position of “two state solution” to the Israel-Palestine conflict. India was among the first countries to recognise Palestine as a country. The famous Palestine leader, Yasser Arafat would describe India as his second home.
Owaisi’s “Jai Palestine” slogan needs to be viewed in historical context on two counts. First, the AIMIM is the ideological and political descendant of the infamous ‘Razakars’ patronized by the Nizam of Hyderabad who unleashed a reign of terror on the Hindus during Nizam’s rule. Owaisi, however, has been repeatedly denying that AIMIM is a descendant of Razakars.
Second, his “Jai Palestine” slogan reminds of the Khilafat Movement, which was launched by the Indian Muslims in solidarity with the Caliph of Turkey, the seat of the Ottoman Empire that time, from 1919 to 1922.
The Khilafat Movement for defending the Islamic ‘Caliphate’ was supported by Mahatma Gandhi and eventually by the Indian National Congress in order to express solidarity with the Muslim sentiment in India. Gandhi believed his support for the Khilafat Movement will generate reciprocal support from the Muslim community for the Congress which would strengthen the freedom movement against the British.
That did not happen. Rather, the opposite thing happened. The Khilafat Movement later turned out to be the “foundational idea” for Pakistan. It helped the Muslims to consolidate under one idea, which was then taken over by the Indian National Muslim League, which eventually ended up in the partition of the country and creation of Pakistan in 1947. An overwhelming majority of the Muslims before partition considered the Congress as a “Hindu communal party”.
It is important to be noted that Owaisi did not say “Jai Hind”, while he did say, Jai Bheem, Jai Meem (apparently Jai Muslim or Jai Mohammad, as ‘Meem’ is the first Arabic alphabet for Muslim and also the first alphabet for Mohammad), Jai Telangana, Jai Palestine and Allah-u-Akbar.
If not nipped in the bud, such tendencies eventually turn into sectarian and secessionist cancer that is difficult to treat once it spreads across the community.
There may be nothing wrong legally or constitutionally about such a slogan, but those who framed laws and drafted constitution obviously must not have visualised such a situation where a democratically elected member of the parliament is raising a slogan in favour of another country and not in favour of his own country.
That is how the separatist and secessionist movements are built up. These are initially built up by exploiting legal loopholes and ambiguities till they become so strong and powerful that it becomes a problem to tackle them at later stages.
People like Owaisi also know about the deep fault lines existing within Indian polity, which may make it virtually impossible for everyone to come together. Right now, what Owaisi did may be dismissed as insignificant and inconsequential, but it has a potential for long term consequences, which obviously will not be good for the country.
There has to be a minimum consensus on the issues of national integrity and security. The BJP and the Congress, the two main political ideologies of the country may have hundreds of differences between one another, they must not let these differences be exploited by the people like Owaisi.
He knows the Congress will never oppose such slogans, and if the BJP opposes and acts against him, the Congress will come to his defence for obvious reasons, which certainly is not good for the country.
Remember, Congress's support for the Khilafat Movement eventually led to the creation of Pakistan. Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Better take the queue and clue from history and not let anyone pander to the sectarian sentiments, which may turn into a secessionist and separatist cancer in later stages too difficult to treat.
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