Should Muslims tag along with MIM or find real time ways to improve their situation?

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is in the process of spreading its wings across the nation. Significant success in the recent Bihar elections (five MLAs from Seemanchal region) have given the party so far confined to the old quarters of Hyderabad city a shot in the arm. The party has increased its strength in the Lok Sabha from one to two, the second one coming from Aurangabad in Maharashtra, a State with two Majlis MLAs in its Assembly. The Majlis retained its strength in Hyderabad Municipal elections. Now the tiny political outfit is poised to enter the poll fray in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
The familiar plea from a section of scribes and other opinion leaders is that why not a Muslim party be experimented in Uttar Pradesh? Political oscillations As a journalist for the last four decades (of which around nine years were spent in Delhi), I have observed from close quarters the bankruptcy of the Muslim political thinking and attempts to mount spectacles without any hard work. The community has oscillated from unflinching support for the Congress in the post-1947 years to Lok Dal (part of SVD government in Uttar Pradesh in 1967) to Janata Party/Dal, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party. Finding itself in the wilderness after the advent of the BJP in Lucknow Vidhana Sabha, there is a babble of voice plumping for Owaisi and MIM in the State with the largest population of Muslims.   Grave risks Any such endeavour would be fraught with grave risks. This would however not be the first time the Muslims are toying with the idea of supporting a Muslim party, this time, of course, one trying to make a foray from the Deccan. No doubt, disenchantment among UP Muslims is high and all-pervasive. But no one is keen to raise the question of what the Majlis stands for and how has it contributed to the development of the community in its primary bastion i.e., Hyderabad’s old quarters. Has there been a cogent plan to develop the community in Majlis’ charter of objectives? Political empowerment or to be plainer, the legislative numbers that propel a party or organization into the seat of power, does not come merely through the ability to mobilize voters. Substantial work lies behind that stage. The BJP has not come to power only through propaganda and publicity (and some would like to say fakery, gimmickry and skullduggery). Thousands of their leaders have been engaged in groundwork for nearly seven decades. Remember, Nanaji Deshmukh, Govindacharya and scores of others! It has taken them seven decades of hard work in a country with 80% Hindu majority. Yes, of course, their ideology has a strong element of negativism vis-à-vis Muslim and Christian minorities. Yet, one should not be dismissive about their hard work in campuses, among farmers, youth, women, advocates and other professionals.
Poor state of education All serious-minded people should focus their efforts towards the educational development of Muslims in UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam (and of course their splinter states) where live 60% of India’s Muslims. Modern education holds key to all-round development of any people. Madrassas abound in UP. A survey by the Institute of Objective Studies in the early 1990s of Muslim educational institutions in Basti, Gonda and Bahraich—three districts skirting Nepal—had revealed that there exist 370 large-sized madrassas (of the sort of  Kashiful Uloom, Bahrul Uloom, Rauzautul Ulooms etc) but have only six primary schools run by Muslims. Author Mukhtar Ahmed Makki’s book “ Educational Trends and Development of Muslims in India ” reveals that Bihar Madrasa Examination Board has 1,200 registered madrassas (teachers there receive salaries as applicable to Government teachers). But Muslims run 70 and odd high schools. The book was published in 2008 and the figures pertained to an era prior to Jharkhand’s creation in the year 2000. These make it evident that identity (its preservation) is the priority of the community in these states while development takes a backseat.