| Vol. V, No. 23 MAGH 8, 2008 January 21, 1952 Four Annas – Air-/4/6 |
MAN AND THOUGHT
(A Special Interview)
On December 13, two days before the election in Delhi U.P. Jan Sangh Kader Ansari addressed four meetings aggregating an audience of well over a lac in the Capital. The Congress press considered it an infringement of Congress copyright of Muslim workers, duly blacked out the event. A Muslim gentleman —and that too a full-fledged Maulana —speaking from the Jan Sangh platform is obviously a cause of pain in many a Congressman’s tummy.
MULANN MOHAMMED IBRAHIM, to give him his full name, is a resident of Bijnor (U.P.) and editor of Ansari a local Urdu newspaper. He is Jt. Secretary of the U.P. Momin Conference and General Secretary of the Bijnor District Momin Conference. In this capacity he has spent the last so many years in the service of the Momin community.
After acquiring Islamic learning and the degree of Fazl-e-Deoband, Maulana Ansari entered the political field in 1935 as a zealous Congressman. He was arrested in 1938 for delivering a patriotic speech in Lucknow. But that did not damp his ardour and even in 42 he did his bit worthily.
As guide of the Momin Conference the Maulana had consistently kept the conference with the Congress. And even when the great Mr. Jinnah, along with Mr. Liaquat Ali made overtures to him and suggested that the Momin Conference join hands with the Muslim League, Maulana Ansari gave an emphatic NO. Even in the 1947 Muslim riots he sincerely worked for the preservation of peace,—though, paradoxically enough, his own press in Bijnor was damaged through toe designs of some Congress worthies.
With a serious look in his half closed eyes and a simple expression on his gray bearded face. the Maulana is a forth-right but decorous orator in fine Urdu. His appeal, mostly to the Muslims, is sincere and clear-cut.
Inspite of his being a zealous Congressman, Maulana Ibrahim Ansari had to leave the Congress because. to quote his own words, “the Congress is fighting the elections on the Hindu Code Bill, but winning them on Muslim votes”. This political exploitation of the Muslim community at Congress hands bodes ill, according to him, for the nation in general and the Muslims in particular.
What impresses most about the Maulana is the air of intensity. He had filed nomination papers for the U.P. State Assembly against the notorious Govind Sahai but they were rejected on trumpary objections. For this he has publicly thanked the Returning Officer. And from the very day his papers were rejected, he has been on a whirlwind tooth-combing tour of U.P. He has passed through a great number of towns and villages in the whole province and it is to his credit that a neat two and a half thousand Muslims are working as active members of the Bharatlya Jan Sangh.
Darkness at Noon Nehru’s friend the Grand Mufti of Delhi who issued a Fatwa i.e. Judgment on the eve of Delhi Municipal elections diclaring Muslim voting for non-Congressmen as haram i.e. against the law of Islam (!) has issued a new no less scandalous Fatwa. Appealing to Muslim voters of Delhi to vote only for Muslim candidates the Grand Humbug gives four reasons for his stand :
The Fatwa concludes : “Therefore any Muslim who does not vote for a Muslim candidate Is the enemy of Islam. He is a ‘Kaffir’ and a ‘sinner’. |
As said above he has not escaped the price of this nationalism. Social ex-communication, notice by the maid-servant and even non-cooperation by his own mother have been lot—coupled with a violent assault by Congress goondas. But the Maulana's message is the same: “Oh ye Muslims! It is with the Hindus that you can live In Bharat Varsh. It Is with the Jan Sangh that you can prosper, and not with Nehru and his secular non-deseripts.”
