HAS RAHUL’S INITIATIVE OF MEETING MUSLIM INTELLECTUALS BOOMERANGED?

For a politician who is under the most sensitive security cover and the chief of the 135 year old party having ruled the country for more than 60 years after independence, taking out two hours time for an exclusive interaction with merely twelve gentlemen of the muslim community, not all Congressmen is an issue that bears immense significance.

Just few days ago on 11th July, Rahul Gandhi was modest enough to meet about 12 eminent muslim faces at his 12 Tuglaq Road house who were’nt the hard core Muslim or Maulvies but people with educative backgrounds, the liberal and progressive muslims viz. ex bureaucrats, NGO activists, writers, theatre activists, ex youth and student leaders, advocates, educationists, entrepreneurs, journalists and social activists.

Nobody was allowed to carry their mobiles inside nor was the meeting bearing any definite agenda. It was purely a sequential interactive session discussing issues of security of the minorities and the role of Indian muslims in nation building or say the reason behind the loss of faith of minorities in the Congress and how to recover or rejuvenate that lost faith bla bla bla.

Insiders say Rahul looked too matured, happy and interactive wearing a jeans n shirt with the growing beard as if not shaven for at least three days.

The meeting with muslim colleagues primarily seemed to be an initiative of the youthful Congress chief to learn and analyse the mindset of these persons of eminence in their own fields who were necessarily not the enrolled Congress members, may be sympathisers.

Several things were interacted after the formal introduction right from the issues like the prevailing sense of insecurity amongst the minorities since the last 4 years with reference to the incidents of lynchings of journalists and people of the particular community in the name of cow vigilantism etc.

To this Rahul asked them as to why should a minority not act as a brave person in equanimity with other majority community people and confront the tirades courageously while assuring them that the Congress party and leadership had always stood with them in the thick and thin , the Dalits , women and the backwards and would continue to do so with more vigour and vitality in the near future as well.

One of the participant in this interactive session Z K Faizan who’d been a close associate of late political stalwart and a greatest secularist of his time H. N. Bahuguna and President of AMU during 1975 to 1977, said that this interactive session with Rahul Gandhi was extremely cordial, perfect, excellent and heart warming as the latter was not only very acknowledging and receptive but also discussed various issues very freely and threadbare like a friend.

In one of the reference Rahul gave an example to exhibit how fastly the incumbent government is losing its credibility and popularity, particularly amongst the poor and the lowest sections of thesociety. Rahul said: one day while I was travelling in Delhi my car got entangled in a traffic jam for a while. Meanwhile an auto rickshaw driver recognised him and started waving at me( Rahul). I rolled down my windscreen despite security’s objection and asked the auto driver: AAP KAISE HAIN, to which he replied SAHAB IS RAAJ MEIN BAHUT BURE HAAL HO GAYE HAIN, GARIB PISTA JAA RAHA HAI, HAMAARI KOI SUNNE VALA NAHI HAI. HUM BARBAADHO GAYE HAIN. Rahul asked him: chunav mein kisko vote karoge, the angry auto rickshaw driver said SAHAB KISI BHI BHI KARENGE PAR BJP KO NAHI KARENGE, CHAAHE KUCH BHI HO JAAYE …. using the unparliamentary words.

He thereafter repeatedly and emphatically said that the BJP led NDA nor Narendra Modi are going to repeat in 2019 irrespective of the fact that which party or political conglomeration rules the country.

Such is the downward slide of this government said Rahul while interacting with the invitees. Rahul was also questioned about the supposed tie up with SHIV SENA as being given to understand in the forthcoming non BJP opposition unity initiative to which he replied in negative saying : the Congress will have to seek a second birth to do so.

On the Sachchar Commission’s recommendations that genuinely higlighted the plight of the muslim community asking the succesive governments to do the needful to improve thei lot of muslims around the country, Rahul Gandhi replied that it was primarily the Congress government which majorly implemented its recommendations but was out of power by then and therefore could’nt fulfil all the remaining recommendations.

He said it’s the Congress party that always thinks of the financial, socio political, educational, industrial, and over all welfare and well being of the minorities and that’s the reason its arch political rivals terms it as the party of muslims. He said : he feels delighted to be called so. There had been lots’ of debate on this addmission of Rahul Gandhi as one of the Urdu paper highlighted this issue as its banner news, later picked by every television Channel.

On the issue of the non BJP national unity to credibly counter BJP majority of the muslim participants were of the view that if Narendra Modi and his NDA is to be credibly countered in the 2019 elections the entire opposition opposed to the BJP regionally and nationally needs to be united at all costs and that Rahul Gandhi should take the cudgels of this non BJP opposition unity into his hands to which Rahul replied in affirmative but said that despite our being assiduously involved in this unity move it should be a long termed and extremely cohesive for the next five years, to the minimum and if would’nt be so things won’t really fructify in a credible manner.

According to Z K Faizan though Rahul Gandhi agrees that regional political forces are cropping up in several states and are playing an extremely pivotal role too, but to counter the spreading tentacles of the saffron party at the national scenerio strenghtening of Congress Party as a force to reckon with is utmostly essential and as such the entire non BJP opposition parties should stand consolidately behind this 135 year old party which has its sizeable presence right from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari.
Prominent amongst those present in this interactive meeting were sr advocate Supreme court , Z.K.Faizan, Journalist Farah Naqvi, Prof.Irfan Habib, Educationist M.Ilyas Malik, Economist A.Shareef, Ex.Bureaucrat MS Farooqi, Industrialist Junaid Rehman, Social activist, Haroon Ali Khan, Historian Rakhshanda Jalil, JNU Prof. Ghazala Jameel etc.