Blog: For Right-Wing, A Owaisi Is Indeed Team 'B'
For years, Asaduddin Owaisi has lived with the Team ‘B’ tag. The label was thrown at him by the Congress and its allies because they believed that his act of fielding candidates in states like Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh was aimed specifically at splitting the minority votes, thereby helping the BJP win in those constituencies.
In the last two weeks, Owaisi has been “honoured” with the team ‘B’ tag – by the BJP. This ‘B’ stands for Bharat. Suddenly, the ruling party and its supporters are celebrating Owaisi for putting Pakistan in its place, for calling the country “official beggars” for depending desperately on a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), for demanding that its nuclear bombs be disarmed and for branding it a threat to mankind. In a dramatic twist to the hackneyed script that has played out in India’s political theatre for long, those loyal to the BJP are now defending Owaisi against Pakistani trolls, calling him “our own Muslim” and celebrating him as a hero.
It is worth noting that Owaisi spoke out at a fragile moment in India. The four terrorists at Pahalgam on April 22 had sought to create fissures by choosing their targets on the basis of their non-Muslim identity. The video of Owaisi lashing out against Pakistan, therefore, was a clear message that the rogue state had no purchase among Indians. It was a much-needed balm, as well as an insurance cover for the Muslim community in India, so that it is not demonised for the act of demons from across the border.
From an India point of view, it is definitely an advantage that all of Bharat is speaking in one voice. When a Muslim voice as suave and articulate as Owaisi speaks, it dehyphenates the community from Pakistan and negates the narrative pushed in that country’s media that India is now a Hindu rashtra. It does not allow the radicals from across the border to exploit our fault-lines. When we are fighting the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, such a positioning works to India’s advantage.
But will it change the perception about the average Muslim on the street or is the love restricted to the MP from Hyderabad? Does it mean that the jibe of ‘Go to Pakistan’ will no longer be thrown at any Muslim during arguments? If the embracing of Owaisi was accompanied by a change in how the minorities are perceived by the party in power, it would be welcome. But that has not been the case. Soon after the Pahalgam terror attack, the help provided by ‘insiders’ in Kashmir was a recurring theme pushed on TV channels, seeking to villainise some local Kashmiri Muslims. The insinuation was that they could not be trusted. The recasting of Owaisi in a positive role is therefore only like the character of a ‘good’ Muslim in Hindi films who is given limited screen time.
Not just that. The ugly spectacle of Vijay Shah, the Tribal Affairs minister in Madhya Pradesh, typecasting Colonel Sofia Qureshi, the Army spokesperson during Operation Sindoor, in her religious identity by saying that “India had taught a lesson to those responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack using their sister from the community (unki samaaj ki behen ke zariye)” is proof that little has changed. The Madhya Pradesh High court has now stepped in and taken the minister to task.
There is another problem with this certificate of patriotism being issued to Owaisi. The element of (as though unexpected) surprise at his comments is both condescending and insulting. The fact that a Muslim is being hailed for speaking for India and not Pakistan is demeaning both to the leader and the community. Without realising it, it is in fact, reinforcing the othering of the community.
It will be interesting to watch how the BJP, with its change of heart on Owaisi, takes him on politically. Owaisi for long, has been a foe with benefits because attacking him polarised Hyderabad and some parts of Telangana on communal lines, making it a win-win electoral situation for both the BJP and Owaisi’s party, the AIMIM. A common rhetoric in BJP speeches would be to attack the AIMIM’s Pakistan connection because Qasim Rizvi, the party’s leader at the time of the merger of Hyderabad with India in 1948, was jailed after Operation Polo and was sent to Pakistan in 1957. What is ignored is that Abdul Wahed Owaisi (Asaduddin Owaisi’s grandfather), who was chosen to head the MIM after Rizvi’s ouster, had nothing to do with Pakistan.
Owaisi’s anti-Pakistan tirade is being seen by a section of India’s so-called intelligentsia as a rejection of Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory. What it subtly insinuates is that Owaisi was batting for Pakistan all these years and it is only post-Operation Sindoor that he has decided to be firmly on India’s side. This thinking is abhorrent, not rooted in a shred of evidence and is nothing but a disgusting display of chauvinism.
(Uma Sudhir is Executive Editor, NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
