andhra pradesh politics, asaduddin owaisi, old city, neglect

[A tilt at MIM’s windmills]

Call it the Jayaprakash Narayan syndrome. Whenever an upper middle class personality from a leafy locality declares that he has a political conscience and that his duty is to clean up the Augean stables before the summer vacation, the chatterati adopt him as their flavour of the summer. Their stimulus comes from the Tata Tea ad and they are moved enough to register for jaagore.com. They may even vote if it’s a Saturday.

It is not a new phenomenon. Dev Anand floated a party in Mumbai in 1977, called it the National Party of India, and persuaded Nani Palkhivala to take on C D Gupta. Mallika Sarabhai does it if she is not on a dance tour of Europe. These are the Dhartipakads of a different kind, candidates with a conscience.

It would be tempting to treat Zahid Ali Khan’s tilt at the MIM’s windmills in Hyderabad LS as one such temporary conscience brimming over. He is the editor of the Urdu newspaper Siasat, read by Muslims in the better streets of old Hyderabad. He is taking on Asaduddin Owaisi, keeper of the MIM chalice since the passing of Salauddin Owaisi. He is talking development in the gallis and the MIM is throwing stones at his car.

It has been the chemistry of Old City politics that all parties to the left of the BJP act in ways that will ensure the victory of the MIM candidate. Isolated by this conspiracy of appeasers and appeasees, the BJP embarked on a long-term movement to build its numbers in the rural parts of the constituency such as Pargi, Chevella, Shamshabad. Then the Delimitation Commission went and delimited those very areas out of the Old City, to leave the constituency solidly Muslim and therefore solidly MIM. The BJP’s Baddam Bal Reddy, for long the MIM’s punching bag, left to pursue his rural pastures, and one thought that the field was clean for the MIM.

That’s when Zahid Ali Khan’s found his conscience and decided he would challenge the MIM’s supremacy in the casbahs. For a constituency that has kept faith in one dynasty for 25 years and received little by way of development, Mr Khan’s candidacy received a modicum of support from within the Muslim community and from the Left parties which too had been burrowing into the MIM’s wood work. And since the Congress is seen to be supporting the MIM, a UPA ally, the TDP adopted Mr Khan. The fourth member of the Mahakutami, the TRS, however, is dragging its feet to this skirmish because it needs the support of the MIM to achieve a separate Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital and therefore had better keep its voice low right now.

It’s still not a contest, but it is interesting. Here is an erudite editor asking why the Muslims of the Old City are still living in squalor despite having been represented by a Muslim party for 25 years. Why indeed. The English press quickly adopted Mr Khan because here was an opportunity to make this election interesting to the NRIs of Hyderabad. To them, Mr Khan was doing what they couldn’t themselves do to the redneck leaders of Khairatabad and Jubilee Hills. They paint it in the colours of a David v Goliath T-20 match.

Old-timers think it’s Don Quixote v Windmill.

But the MIM is rattled enough to throw stones at Mr Khan’s car. Strangely enough, Asaduddin is not a member of the unwashed classes himself. He is an urbane lawyer with exquisite manners. He speaks fine English and lives in Banjara Hills, and that’s the point. Newspapers living in Jubilee Hills cannot quite fathom that someone from Banjara Hills can represent the people of Bahadurpura.

But then, Asad’s party is not in the politics of development as much as it is in the politics of identity protection. Its response to Mr Khan’s tie-up with the TDP is to taint the latter with the support it gave, albeit at one remove, to Narendra Modi’s regime in Gujarat. It’s a brush that tars well on the canvas of the Old City.

Other profiles:

[tomoderatorteam]

Not too bad but clearly you guys had too much alphabet cereal. How typically Deccan Chronicley.

[aadi]

I don't think this is by fullhyd.com or its moderators - it appears like it's by some regular user...

[Tiger]

i like the alphabet cereal comment i just can't stop my laugh maan.....

also since mim won we can ignore people like zahid and sarabhai and all....

anyway ifu like me to comment on this it could be some siasat paper employee though.. i just hope their salaries are not tilted by now.......poor sorry guys.

[Tadban, APIIC Land 2000 yards allotted f]

I feel shame to inform you that, a non muslim Regional Manager of APIIC has been allotted 2000 sqr yards land near ITI (Dargah) Tadban, and during during 2005, one of the muslim belongs to Arab country started to constructed a buitiful mosque, but the candidates of MIM stopped the work by his words that, they wanted to contruct the mosuqe, but later with the help of local police they sold out the land to public, the same has been published in MUNSIF News paper, but no action has been taken, is it this is muslim party ??????, I feel they don't have any religion except playing with innocent muslims in the name of ISLAM. I feel they are worst than BJP, because this party playing in front of mulsims, but MIM Playing against muslim background/under darkness. Allah save muslim, Allah save innocent muslim with MIM.