Explained: This article explains the political background, key decisions, and possible outcomes related to Explained : Include Pasmanda Muslims in Rahul Gandhi’s social justice politics: Bihar Congress leader and Its Impact and why it matters right now.
Patna: Congress leader Ali Anwar Ansari stated that secular parties must work for backward Muslims rather than taking their votes for granted, The Indian Express reported.
The former Rajya Sabha MP, who is the head of the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (AIPMM), made it clear that Rahul Gandhi’s social justice politics are meaningless without including Pasmanda Muslims in them.
Ansari, who joined the Congress just before the Bihar Assembly elections, told The Indian Express that ‘Rahul Gandhi talked of social justice with EBCs (Extremely Backward Classes), OBCs (Other Backward Classes), Dalits and Muslims at its fulcrum. We are surely disappointed with the Bihar Assembly results, but five states, including West Bengal, are going to the polls this year’.
Urging the Congress to think beyond Hindu-Muslim polarization and communalism, Ansari said Pasmanda movement could ‘neutralise Muslim communalism’.
The two-time Rajya Sabha MP from a JD(U) ticket said that Rahul Gandhi mentioned Pasmanda Muslims ‘once or twice’ without any follow-up, and called for setting up ‘a devoted Pasmanda cell in the party, or an EBC-Pasmanda cell’.
Ansari said ‘After all, the Sachchar Committee and the Rangnath Mishra Commission have also endorsed the very idea of Pasmanda. Just as there is EBC in Hindus, there is Pasmanda among Muslims. The Bihar caste-based survey has also identified 10.5% Muslim EBCs or Pasmanda.’
Ansari was among over a dozen EBC, Dalit and Muslim leaders who joined the Congress during Rahul Gandhi’s Samvidhan Bachao meetings in Patna ahead of the Bihar polls.