Another feather in the cap of Indian Secularism; AIMIM could soon become a National Party

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen is all set to materialise its pan-Indian ambitions, to be the real voice of Indian Muslims. Their electoral success in various state elections hence proves that the Hyderabad based party, notorious known for its Hindu hating mentality, is expanding faster. In the recently concluded Bihar state legislative election, AIMIM won 5 seats. They have 2 MLAs in Maharashtra assembly and the party is preparing for debut in the West Bengal election. With the extremist Muslim vote bank drifting away from the Trinamul Congress, AIMIM is all set to make massive inroads to the interiors of political Bengal.

AIMIM leaders have on multiple occasions made their hatred towards Indian civilisation public. Once the younger brother of MIM head Asaduddin Owaisi, Akbaruddin Owaisi in a public speech flared the communal tension by pitching 20 crore Muslims against 100 crore Hindus. The elder Owaisi is an expert at twisting the constitution to suit his divisive agendas. AIMIM is a reincarnation of Nizam’s private army Razakars. This army of Nizam was against the accession of Hyderabad to the Indian union and had a serious role in the massacre of Hindus in Hyderabad. Hence their loathe for Hindus is in their very foundation.

A party of this reputation of siding with anti-national elements becoming a national party explains the hollowness of secularism propagated by the Indian political class. Congress and other regional parties nurtured Muslim vote bank by giving them incentives, but ‘secular parties’ failed to understand that this vote bank was easy prey for hardliner political parties. AIMIM is winning all Muslim majority constituencies where it is contesting elections.

The guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India states that a party can get the national party status once they satisfy any one of the following conditions:

• A party should win 2% of seats in the Lok Sabha from at least three different states.
• At a general election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party polls 6% of votes in any four or more states and besides it win four Lok Sabha seats.
• A party gets recognition as a state party in four states.

To become a recognised state party, the conditions are the following:

• A party should secure at least 6% of valid votes polled in an election to the state legislative assembly and win at least 2 seats in that state assembly.
• A party should secure at least 6% of valid votes polled in an election to Lok Sabha and win at least 1 seat in Lok Sabha.
• A party should win a minimum of three per cent of the total number of seats or a minimum of three seats in the Legislative Assembly, whichever is higher.
• A party should win at least one seat in the Lok Sabha for every 25 seats or any fraction thereof allotted to that State.
• Under the liberalised criteria, one more clause that it will be eligible for recognition as state party if it secures 8% or more of the total valid votes polled in the state.

Observing the acceptance AIMIM gets in the Muslim majority regions, it is a matter of time that AIMIM finally gets the national party status. This indicates that the Indian political narrative requires introspection about redefining what is being called as ‘Indian secularism’.