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Congress apology won't convince TN Muslims

First, it was Arjun Singh. Then it was Madhavrao Scindia. Now it is Congress president Sitaram Kesri.

Their personal agendas against former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao apart, the Congress leaders seem to have failed in their mission to appease the Muslim voters on the Babri mosque demolition. At least in Tamil Nadu, that is.

The reasons are not far to seek. For one thing, there is no Congress worth the name is the state. Second, neither Arjun Singh nor Scindia nor Kesri is a household name in rural Tamil Nadu for the Muslims, to take them seriously. Nor is any other Congressman.

What is more important, the traditional political leadership of the Muslim community in the state is rapidly losing its support base and credibility.

Islam came to Tamil Nadu through peaceful Arab traders long before it entered north India, through the Hindukush, at the bloodied tip of the sword, centuries later.

That being the case, there is nothing is common between the religion practised by the communities in the two regions.

Most Muslims in Tamil Nadu speak only Tamil, and whoever speaks Urdu are descendants of Malikfur's soldiers who settled in the state in the fourteenth century or of the Arcot Nawab, a few generations later.

If anything, the Babri Masjid demolition of 1992 did not rouse Muslim emotions in the state as much as it did elsewhere in the country. Even the sporadic incidents of violence in the state in the post-demolition days were mostly aimed at the local Muslims in RSS-dominated areas.

It was only at Melapalayam, near Tirunelveli in southern Tamil Nadu, that the Muslims retaliated, and reacted to the demolition in some strength.

The demolition, however, succeeded in creating a sense of suspicion and insecurity in the minds of the Muslims. That, too, as an after-thought, when local political parties refrained from taking a strong position against local Hindu rioters.

The then Jayalalitha government and her All India Anna Dravida Kazagham added to their suspicions by backing the Bharatiya Janata Party on the Ayodhya issue.

The government permitting BJP president Lal Kishinchand Advani to address the nation from the Marina sands in Madras, and the ruling party supplying cadres to fill in the crowds, when the rest of India was treating the BJP as an 'untouchable', added to their fears.

What, however, did go mostly unnoticed at the time was the lack of will in the political leadership of the Muslim community in the state.

The majority Indian Union Muslim League under state unit president Abdus Samad was already toeing the Congress line, politically, and sounded unconvincing. The rival Tamil Nadu Muslim League, under rebel leader M A Latheef, backing the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, lacked cadres. The TNML sounded too rabid in words, but not in action.

The IUML has since returned to the DMK fold, and the Latheef-led party split last month following ego clashes, after merging with the Indian National League, formed after the Babri mosque demolition.

Yet both lack in substance and credibility among the masses, as they are seen as having deserted the community in its hour of crisis.

This has contributed to Islamic fundamentalism in the past few years, in turn, accounting for the increasing number of bomb blasts and contributing to the increasing incidents of communal violence in the state.

Against this, moderate elements in the vocal sections of the community have turned towards the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, floated three years back by people who are still unknown otherwise even inside the community.

The TMMK took out a rally to the Raj Bhavan on December 6, 1996, the anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition, thereby proclaiming its arrival.

In the year just gone by, it observed the anniversary with another rally at Madras, attended by over 5,000 Muslims, most of them youth, despite the soaking rains of the previous fortnight.

If anything, the state's Muslims are more concerned about their own security and insecurities. And the Babri mosque has only been a symbol of that feeling and fears. Nothing more. It is these fears that need to be attended to, and a mere apology for the demolition will not satisfy them.

With the Congress down in the dumps, particularly in the state, an apology of the kind proffered by the Congress leaders, will not satisfy the community.

The message, if anything, has not reached them. But electorally, they may still favour the DMK-Tamil Maanila Congress combine against the AIADMK-BJP alliance. And for obvious reasons.

EARLIER REPORTS:
Fear over the city
Fear and loathing in Tamil Nadu
'Let them not demolish the mosques in Kashi and Mathura or the country will face another Partition'

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