Uttar Pradesh has 70 Muslim MLAs and eight Muslim ministers. But is the condition of Muslims better in the neighbouring state, asks a commentator as Urdu newspapers published from Bihar predictably continue to be scathing in their criticism of the BJP and anyone perceived to be helping the party.
Though the Urdu press in Bihar has by and large ignored Asaduddin Owaisi, Patna daily Sangam devoted half a page to describe him as a BJP stooge contesting the election with the sole objective of making things easy for the BJP.
To substantiate the charge, the writer Hafiz Nomani claimed that Owaisi has been let loose to create a communal divide. Any leader half as vitriolic as Owaisi, he wrote, would have been put in jail and made to languish there for years, but not Owaisi. Real leaders of Muslims are not allowed to grow while puppets like Owaisi have a field day, he concluded, adding that besides helping the BJP, Owaisi can do precious little in Bihar elections. Since then of course the AIMIM leader from Hyderabad has scaled down his ambition substantially, announcing that his party would contest only in six constituencies and not in 24 as had been decided earlier.
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The op ed piece challenged Owaisi's premise that larger the number of Muslim MLAs in the assembly, the better it is for Muslims. In neighbouring UP, the piece adds with dripping sarcasm, there are 70 Muslim MLAs and eight Muslim ministers but yet Muslims in Uttar Pradesh are no better off. The op-ed ends with a couplet the second line of which says 'meri Baaton ko Samajh, Talkhi-e taqrir na dekh' (ignore the bitter words and appreciate my spirit).
Rashtriya Sahara saw a pattern in the incidents of communal violence in neighbouring states like Jharkhand and UP and linked them to attempts to heighten communal temperature for reaping political dividends in Bihar. According to a Rashtriya Sahara edit page write up, while organisations like Bajrang Dal and VHP are hyper active in fomenting trouble, a section of Muslim leadership (read Owaisi) is to be equally blamed. Accusing this group of Muslim leadership, the daily said without elaboration that such leaders get ample rewards for keeping the situation surcharged. The gullible Muslim masses tend to get swayed by the oratorical skills of these leaders, it suggested. Though Owaisi is not named, the reference to him is evident in the article written by Asad Raza.
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The same newspaper, in a front page report interpreted BJP leaders' assertion that the next BJP CM will not be from among the Savarnas (upper castes) as the party's desperate attempt to woo the backwards and Dalits. By openly referring to the social identity of their CM pick and excluding an entire group that in the pre-Lalu era dominated the Bihar political scene (the upper castes), was BJP not playing the same caste card that it accuses its rivals of, asked the write up. The Sangam write up hoped that the Election Commission would take BJP leaders to task for wooing backwards with the same seriousness (read vengeance) that the Commission showed in hauling up Lalu Prasad Yadav for giving a backward unity call.
It is rare for the Urdu Press to bring economy and governance issues in the electoral discourse. Making a departure, Qaumi Tanzeem, the leading Urdu daily published from Patna, Ranchi and Kolkata pointedly raised the issue of price rise. In one of its editorials, the daily sarcastically referred to the much trumpeted Achche Din, and wondered what was so good about the steep rise in the prices of eatables, particularly pulses, vegetables and onions. It went on to comment that a rise in prices of sugar appeared just round the corner as sugarcane production is expected to fall. For the common man there appears to be no respite, the editorial said.
Patna daily Pindar also taunted the Modi govt on its Achche Din promise and catalogued as many as 39 controversial quotes of the Prime Minister and other top BJP leaders. The quotes include the much publicised 'Puppy' remark of the PM with reference to the Gujarat riot victims, the Sadhvi exhorting Hindu women to deliver five babies, women going out at night, rape in India and not in Bharat, Nitish Kumar's DNA, jumla, farmers' suicide etc.
