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Even the Right loves Asaduddin Owaisi post-Op Sindoor. Why ‘secular' camp won't embrace him yet
Stated reasons aside, the fact was that Owaisi read the writing on the wall. He could see which direction the Congress was headed.
Owaisi was prophetic. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a force to reckon with in Telangana today. Eight of 17 Lok Sabha MPs from the state are from the BJP. A few months after that conversation with Sonia Gandhi, the AIMIM withdrew support from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre and the Kiran Reddy-headed Congress government in Andhra Pradesh. Owaisi cited the 'communal behaviour' of the Reddy government that had detained AIMIM MLAs and corporators when they were proceeding to the Bhagyalakshmi temple located adjacent to Charminar.
Asaduddin Owaisi knows his politics. In 2011-12, when the Congress was still toying with the idea of bifurcating Andhra Pradesh, the Hyderabad MP was candid to Sonia Gandhi: 'If you create Telangana, the BJP will expand here. It's good for me. But it's bad for Andhra. Don't do it, Madam.' I learnt it from a leader privy to this conversation. It was not the first or last time the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader tried to dissuade her. Congress leaders convinced Gandhi otherwise.
Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Congress made another attempt to get the AIMIM back into its tent. Senior leader Digvijaya Singh was deputed to persuade Owaisi. The AIMIM chief had made up his mind. He was not going to rejoin the UPA. He went to see Singh in a Hyderabad hotel out of courtesy. He rode his bike to the hotel. He kept his helmet on as he entered the hotel to try not to attract attention. A politician close to Owaisi told me that the AIMIM chief had to wait for two hours as Digvijaya Singh was in the hotel restaurant, dining with his would-be wife and journalist, Amrita Rai. Singh finally met Owaisi, but the latter didn't budge. He had read the direction of the wind. He was probably also cutting loose because he had his eyes set on AIMIM's expansion beyond Andhra, which had to come at the cost of the Congress and other 'secular parties'.
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Role reversal
Cut to 2025, it's the AIMIM that is finding no takers in the secular camp now. AIMIM Bihar president and MLA Akhtarul Imam has written to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Yadav, expressing his party's desire to join the Opposition alliance in the coming Assembly election to prevent a split in secular votes. Owaisi himself hasn't spoken on this but has clarified that Imam is authorised to take decisions in Bihar.
Owaisi must be wringing his hands in despair. The RJD has spurned the AIMIM's offer. Party MP Manoj Kumar Jha has said that Owaisi's base is in Hyderabad. If he wants to defeat the BJP, he should not contest the election in Bihar, said Jha. Other RJD leaders have been rather blunt, calling Owaisi's party the 'BJP's B team'.
In a state where Muslims constitute 17 per cent of the population and for a party that relies so heavily on the Muslim-Yadav combination (together constituting around 32 per cent), RJD leaders' snub to Owaisi came a bit too soon. After all, the AIMIM won five of the 20 seats it contested in the last Assembly election. And the crossover by four AIMIM MLAs to the RJD doesn't make Owaisi's party irrelevant; he is the vote-getter.
So, what explains the RJD's snub to the AIMIM? The Congress and the Left—other constituents of the mahagathbandhan—are looking the other way. Secular camp leaders argue that Owaisi has lost his steam and appeal, as is evident from the AIMIM's dismal electoral performance in recent times. They are convinced that Muslims are again rallying behind the principal party or alliance that challenges the BJP in different states. They also believe that their charge of Owaisi being the BJP's B-team has stuck. His vocal support to the Narendra Modi-led government post-Pahalgam terror attack and even joining a delegation of MPs to defend the Modi government's Operation Sindoor abroad further deepened the impression, some of the 'secular' camp leaders told me. Now, that's a shocker. For a long time, these 'secular' leaders didn't want to be seen with the firebrand Muslim leader because they thought it would help the BJP polarise the Hindus. Now that even the Right ecosystem is almost falling in love with Owaisi for his unequivocal denunciation of ('kamine, kutte, haraamzade') terrorists from Pakistan and his vocal support for the Modi government's retaliatory action and diplomatic offensive, why is the secular, anti-BJP camp not ready to embrace him?
Asaduddin Owaisi is as secular as anyone in the so-called secular camp. Just that his commitment to secularism goes beyond votes. He doesn't need to visit temples to make up for defending anything concerning the Muslims. Long before his expletives about Pahalgam terrorists made headlines, he had called Islamic State members 'dogs of hell'. He demanded Hajj subsidy be stopped and the money be used for Muslim girls' education.
Can you think of a 'secular' leader calling for an end to Hajj subsidy?
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Owaisi controlled the narrative
What Owaisi did in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack was a very timely, smart initiative to shield the Muslim community as a whole from any attempted tarnishing by the far Right. Even the BJP was falling for this temptation to mobilise the Hindus. Remember Chhattisgarh BJP's social media post—'dharam puchha, jaati nahin, yaad rakhenge'? (Remember, they asked your religion, not caste)
Dog-whistling had just started. Asaduddin Owaisi rose to become the voice of the entire Muslim community, effectively foiling any attempt to give a communal colour to the terror strike. Of course, it also helped that PM Modi and other top BJP leaders made it a point not to refer to the victims' religion.
To understand why it was so important for Owaisi to take hold of the narrative, read what actor Naseeruddin Shah had to go through for his Facebook post supporting Diljit Dosanjh, who is under attack for casting a Pakistani actress in Sardaar Ji 3. 'I am an easy target for 'nationalists' and paid trolls…because I feel no need to wear my love for anything, including my country, on my sleeve,' Shah wrote in The Indian Express.
Naseeruddin Shah doesn't need to wear his patriotism on his sleeve. But common Muslims can't always afford that. Owaisi decided to become the voice of the collective, foiling the plans of Pakistani handlers of Pahalgam terrorists and also pouring cold water on the hopes of communal elements back home. It was a very sensible move. He might have ended up disappointing many in the far-Right ecosystem for the missed opportunity.
That should make Asaduddin Owaisi a bigger asset for the secular camp. But they are not ready to embrace him yet. Not because they still think that the BJP will use his name to polarise the Hindus. But because they find it a good opportunity to finish a competitor for Muslim votes for good. They believe that his support for the Modi government—even over terrorism—will alienate the Muslims from him. Owaisi must prove them wrong in Bihar polls—if only to break the stereotype of the Muslim.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
