On last Thursday, newly appointed Gujarat Congress President Amit Chavda held his first press conference and he announced a two-month roadmap to strengthen party organisation at booth level, to take on the BJP in 2019 polls. The party will appoint two Jan Mitra (friends of people), a male and female, at each of the 45,000 booths to establish connect with people and mobilize voters .
In urban regions, where Congress has not fared well, a separate cell will be set up at Pradesh Congress Committee , Chavda held a series of meetings with district and city level representatives and heads of various cells. Addressing a joint press conference with Leader of the Opposition Paresh Dhanani, Chavda said he would start a state-wide tour from April 13, starting from Ambaji temple to take inputs from taluka and district units of the party. “We will promote ‘boothwad (booth management)’ while shunning ‘joothwad (factionalism)’. Congress Jan Mitra will establish party’s connect with people whether there are elections or not.”
In his first media briefing with media, he spoke about SC/ST and OBC including reservation issue. He did not utter a single word about Muslim community and its problems facing in Gujarat. and at Centre. Normally, state congress leaders never speak about minorities . Mr. Amit chavda also continues its tradition.
Muslims are always ignored within the Congress party and, if corrective measures are not taken, they will have to find a political alternative., Muslims are not given corresponding representation in terms of posts and are ignored. “Congress gives a post to Muslims only if there is no alternative. In party functions at local level, Muslims are not allowed to share the stage as the party feels that they will lose Hindu votes if they seem to promote Muslims within the party.
In the present state Legislative Assembly, there are 44 seats where Muslims votes played a critical role in the victory of Congress candidates. However, sidelining of Muslims will result in younger voters shifting towards other political groups. while other cells are active in Congress, the Minority Cell is rendered dysfunctional.
The community is taking a cue from rise of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jig-nesh Mevani and are contemplating forming a community body to ensure that political parties cannot afford to ignore them.community is open to approaching non-Congress, no-n-BJP parties in other states.
Muslims traditionally have voted for Congress, but nothing much has been done to empower the community. In fact, the benefits of central government schemes are not reaching the Muslims in the state. Time has come for the community to decide its political future. Muslims hold significant number of votes in 18 assembly seats in Saurashtra and Kutch yet they are being neglected. Muslim leaders need to discuss why this has happened and what is the way out?”
Bhuj, Mundra, Jamnagar, Wankaner, Dhoraji, Bhavnagar, Mahuva, Junagadh, Somnath, Mangrol, Kodinar, Manavadar and Rajkot are among the places where there are a sizeable number of Muslim voters.
The current Hindutva passion must be seen in a larger context. Muslims must not panic , as that would cause much greater harm to the community.
Let us never forget that we are about 200 million strong in India. Is it really possible for the Hindutva forces to kill or remove such a huge population ?
Our problem is really economic and educational. These are the arms of any society. Our body is weak. Let us concentrate on building up our society.
That requires the best education , wealth generation and the uplift of our women.
Politics can come let. As far as I am concerned, it is immaterial whether there are Muslims in our Assemblies or in Parliament.
The Jews in the US are hardly there as Senators or Congressmen. Yet they control the system, through their economic and education power.
J.S.Bandukwala
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